Hello,
I have had my 1951 Super 88 two years now, and have navigated speedometer and carburetor, suspension and gasoline problems, which I think, DV, are resolved. A source of perpetual frustration is that my 15" sombrero hubcaps will not stay on my steel wheels. Despite bending the tabs and inserting 3M double sided tape and gluing stops to the wheels. It turns out that the wheel's groove is too far back for the hubcap to gain purchase. (pic3, top). My friend has a 1950 Model with dog dish caps (other two pics) which clip onto clips which I do not have, so apparently I have the wrong wheels for dog dish or sombrero caps. A call to Coker and a search of the net indicate that such wheels are no longer made. I am hesitant to purchase used wheels, but suppose there may be someone out there who changed wheels for reasons other than problems? My alternative seems to try a more modern Olds hubcap which might catch correctly onto my wheels. I wonder if anyone can tell me what year Olds moved to a non-clip more generic wheel? THANK YOU.
Andrew
BTW I was invited by the owner of the '50 below to attend a Houston Olds Club outing to see a large private car collection today, what fun!

 

BUMP. I am still looking for ANY GM wheel which has three clips to hold a dogdish hubcap. Thanks!

 

There’s a Guy on the V8 Buick site who might be able to help. I think? his name is Bill Lagna possibly in Maryland.

 

Iv'e had three of those '51-'52 Super 88s and those stainless hubcaps would fall off if you just stared at them too long! That vintage pontiac and buick rims used about the same size prongs but won't hold those hubcaps. The last year i drove my '52 I used mid 60's Buick rims. They seemed to have a little bit of an indentation in the area of the clips. I only seemed to loose them on the fronts and always thought it was partially because of the mostly worn out hydraulic shock absorbers. As a scientific experiment as a young man, I determined that when those caps flew off at 70 mph they would roll about 1 mile before tipping over and hiding!

 

ACTUALLY - You can weld up the existing valve stem holes and drill new valve stem holes to index the full wheel cover so the fingers have fresh metal to contact to allow a better chance for the wheel covers or trim rings to remain attached, and then placing the new valve stem hole in the location marked by the hole in the wheel cover. Yes a lot of work and bother, but a workable solution for a now common problem. You do this ONLY with the tires off the rim and rims off the car, New holes must be well deburred and painted.

Always that chance the rim tire combo might have starting fluid residue from some yo yo mounting the tires that way. NEVER EVER take that chance, people in truck work still getting killed today because of this. Good luck ~

 

I don't know if you are still looking at wheels, but I have two that came off my 1950 Olds. The clips are missing, but Fusick has new ones for $7.