Hubcap Pressing

[ardiesse]

I didn't realise the parallels between hubcaps and coin collecting.  In numismatic circles they call this an "upset", where the dies for the obverse and reverse side of the coin are misaligned.  If you get, say a 20c piece and hold it with thumb and forefinger at 12 and 6, and QE2's image upright, and then spin the coin around to the "tails" side, the design should be upright.  Apparently there were a fair few pennies minted with heads and tails upside-down with respect to each other - the "6-o'clock upset".  And there were lots of kangaroo pennies with a full stop after the word "PENNY".  And in 1951 quite a lot of Australian coinage was minted in London, and the coins had "PL" on their reverse for identification.

Bet you didn't want to know that . . .

Rob

[KFH]

Probably a dyslectic worker at the factory

[CoolFCWgn]

Stainless Hubcaps were mentioned earlier in the thread.

I only have 1 out of my collection of 20 odd , and that's one I picked up last month at the Junortoun swap.

Are they fairly rare or have I just not been looking in the right places?

[DJ]

I picked up some new SS hubcaps last year, still in original GMH plastic bags. The person I bought them from believed they were produced for FE, but not for FC. I can't confirm this but if your search criteria doesn't already span both FE & FC, maybe it limits the results found.

[DJ]

.... The lion was the first pressing ....

Cheers Stewy   

I wonder if this ever resulted in the lion facing the other way.

[mcl1959]

The hubcap pressing was changed to steel in 1958. So most FE's have stainless hubcaps.
It's simple to tell the difference, they are much lighter and dent easily.
All FX and FJ had stainless hubcaps and FC onwards are steel until they were changed to plastic with the Commodore.
There are some hubcaps with more distinctive lion pressings than others which is due to die wear.
Ken

[DJ]

Ken,
Was that late in the FE production or early in the FC production?
Dave.

[ardiesse]

Ken,

I have a chromed steel FJ hubcap at home, and I'm almost certain my father's HR wagon had stainless hubcaps.  They didn't rust (they and the rear side window moulds were the only part of the car which didn't), and they were quite light.

Rob

[Stewy]

While looking through the HOLDEN "FE" Illustrated Parts Catalogue # 68-HI-56

Section 5.858

This has 2 different part numbers for  CAP, COVER - Wheel hub

                CAP - Chrome plated ...............      ALL ............   7410004       quantity 4    N.P.    (New Part)

                CAP - Stainless steel ..............       ALL ............   7410450       quantity 4    N.P.


So this will make it impossible to date the chrome plated ones as later as they were being made in 1956


Cheers Stewy   

[mcl1959]

That's very interesting Stewy, I don't have that parts book but I have the later FE one 77-H-57.
This lists FE hubcap as 7410450. They list part number 7410004 in the back as superseded by 7410450.
The next book I have is the EJ book. Now the FE and FC cap is listed as 7410004 and now 7410450 is in the back of the book as being replaced by 7410004.
Maybe some early 56 models had steel caps. Anybody have an original early FE with steel caps that they are pretty sure are original to the car?

Ken