when these came off the line what did they look like? chrome shiny? or a painted grey?

thanks dave
michigan

 

...original on my '69

 

that's what i thought, how do you transform what i have to what you have?

thanks dave

 

Two versions offered... painted or polished. Take your pick.

 

mine look like painted originally, would you agree silver?

 

Those in your pic appear to be painted...?

 

did you redo yours wj?

 

"that's what i thought, how do you transform what i have to what you have?" Unfortunately, it's not possible. Your rust-discolor hubcaps are painted steel. The bright ones are stainless steel.

In general, the base models with painted grill and bumpers received steel hubcaps with silver/black paint. Models with the bright grill, bumper, and trim got the stainless steel hubcaps. Stainless steel hubcaps were placed on wheels painted the main body color, steel hubcaps on white or, later, grey wheels.

But Ford never delayed shipping trucks on account of hubcaps, so occasionally you'd see new trucks delivered with the stainless hubcaps on painted wheels, less frequently painted hubcaps on body-color wheels.

Several of the spray can paint brands supply "stainless steel" and "nickel" paints that look nice on the steel hubcaps. Either sandblast or apply Ospho rust converter, then prime, then paint. The black contrast areas on both hubcap types are somewhat difficult to repaint, best done by using a diluted oil-base flat black applied with an art brush in "drops" that spread on contact. Time and patience are required, but the results are superior to masking and flat-black spray painting.

 

No, original owner took good care of 'em.

 

thanks farmall, great info, my wheels are 16.5 on my camper special, looking for opinions, would you all do stainless steel or paint?

 

And the color looks very close to factory original. I'd try painting the ones you have. Either color I mentioned will look very nice as contrast to your white wheels.

You could keep your eyes open for a nice set of stainless steel hubcaps, but they're pretty expensive unless you luck onto a set at reasonable cost. In the meantime, you'll be pleased with your repainted ones, I'm quite sure.

 

Somewhere is a write-up from a member who restored his. I have it saved on computer at home. Very good read.

 

let me know if you find it disney

 

here is my hubs for my 68 ranger, 15"

 

I liked my 16.5" wheels with 9.50-16.5LT bias ply tires, but had a hard time replacing the tires affordably. So I switched to 16" wheels with a center hole that would clear the Dana60 hubs. Not all 16" wheels with the 8 lug bolt pattern will clear the hub, so you have to measure that should you go to 16" wheels in the future. An unexpected issue I ran into was the 16" wheels from a later model Ford would receive the stainless steel hubcaps, but not the steel hubcaps because the hubcap ring ears on the wheel were just a tad larger! So to use my steel hubcaps, I had to grind a bit of the wheel hubcap ring ears off and use a few dabs of silicone caulk to make sure they stay on. I use silicone caulk dabs anyway on all my hubcaps anyway to make sure they stay on. Hubcaps and wheelcovers are getting expensive to replace when they fling off the wheel and get lost or ruined.