Hubcap Pressing

[Stewy]

At the All Holden Day in Adelaide recently an elderly gentleman asked me a question about the hub cap pressing process.

He was a metallurgist for BHP and spent quite a lot of time at various Holden plants.

His question was how many pressings does it take to make a Hubcap? (stainless and steel were the same number)

Cheers Stewy   

[mcl1959]

I've seen some archival footage of the presses at GMH on larger panels like the roof panel, and it is amazing how much deformation can be achieved in just one pressing.
I can imagine the entire profile being pressed in just one go with a follow up process to roll over the edge where it clips onto the rim.

Ken

[Stewy]

Would like to say yes, but the big press was probably in use pushing out panels at a great rate.
He observed that it was a very labour intensive process that involved only a bit at a time.

Cheers Stewy   

[mcl1959]

Makes you wonder why they persisted with the same general shape right upto HK. I can see the HK hub cap being easier to press and the FB was an easier one i guess, but then they went back to pressing out the same shape again in EK.

Ken

[Stewy]

He said they persisted with this method until the 70s and the number of pressings were still similar. Wonder where all the dies went?

Cheers Stewy   

[customFC]

So, what's the answer, how many?
Regards
Alex

[Stewy]

Any Guesses?

Cheers Stewy   

[mcl1959]

OK, since you've said it's very labour intensive ill guess its more like 20 pressings

Ken

[DJ]

Each one? I really thought the presses & conveyers would have had it refined to a lot less steps for mass production.
I wonder what the steps were & where it commenced.

[Stewy]

I was quite shocked, but it was only 14 individual pressings.
He said that each stage was only small to stretch the steel slightly because the risk of splitting was quite high.
The hardest one was the last one which rolled over the retaining lip.
Wonder how many they did? as they passed them down the line.
When you consider 155,161 FEs, 191,724 FCs times by 4 = 1,387,540. hubcaps without spares.
I can't vouch for the first hand knowledge, but he did seem quite genuine.

Cheers Stewy   

[DJ]

That's amazing. They must have cost heaps. Not far off what Ken suggested but a long way off what I expected (4-5 at the most).

[NES304]

can they do em now for a 15 inch wheel?

[Bessie_3]

On the subject of hubcaps I have an interesting one at home. The lion is upside down, I have attached a couple of pictures here of a normal one and a quick photoshop of what the wrong one looks like, I'll take a picture of the one I have at home and put it up. Has anyone seen one of these upside-down hubcaps before? I'd be curious to find out just how many of these "Friday" hubcaps are floating around.

[DJ]

Misalignment by factory worked after a long lunch?

[Stewy]

I would love to see the photo of it.
The lion was the first pressing so you cant blame that person.
probably the triangle was the next so you think someone down the line would have seen it!
Not very good quality control or maybe they let it run to see how far it would get.
And it got all the way through 

Cheers Stewy   

[mcl1959]

There are a few of the upside down caps around, there are also these which are not uncommon as well


They have a dot under the lion for some reason which is pressed in.
These 2 are on my trailer, but are not in real good nick as they have a bit of surface rust

Ken


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[zulu]

Well, you learn something each day

I'll have to check through my collection

That upside down one is unusual

Gary

[customFC]

Well I never.....
Thanks for the info.
Regards
Alex

[FCRB26]

Maybe they were a wankel rotary lover and just didnt know it back then.

[Bessie_3]

Here we go, I took this picture last night of the odd hubcap. As you can see it has been well used so it must have slipped through a few sets of eyes over the years.