Wheels-Caps

[Walys60]

I have a couple of questions on the wheels, hoping someone has some experience here.

When I dug the truck out of its hole, believe it or not, we put the compressor to em and they all air'd up and held great (these are estimated as 30+ year old tube tires). When I gotter home though they showed weather cracks within the first month and decided I'd better put something else on it for actually driving on, so I retired the old split rims, but will keep em in storage anyway.

The rims (pictured) that I bought were just something I found on Craigslist that would fit, but they look real close to what I see on a lot of these old trucks. So, here are the questions..

I have the original caps for the front wheels. Obviously though, there are no tabs for caps on these wheels. Has anyone had experience adding tabs to wheels...welded/riveted them?

Second question...The rears have that big ole hub on em. I've seen some caps for those that match the original fronts (though just pictures, none for sale). I would have thought, though, that if this one had them originally my gramps would have had them still on it. It wasn't exactly well kept for the last quarter century but I know for certain it wasn't where someone could steal anything off of it. Is it possible this one didn't come with those originally ..if so, is there a typical way of dressing them up? Are they commonly painted in other words?

Thanks all! someday I'll ADD to this forum instead of just ask questions I promise! Speaking of, got my building permit for the garage yesterday after 2+ years she'll be inside and ready to start working on er by December (Lord willing).

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Those caps are usually painted black from what I see.
http://6066gmcclub.com/forum/picture...pictureid=3618

Sometimes they just put hubcaps over it like this one.

http://6066gmcclub.com/forum/album.php?albumid=293


And sometimes they paint them the same color as the rim but I think that just drowns it out and makes it look weird.

[AZKen]

Your 60 should have the hub caps that use clips I believe. Your wheel you bought are called the nub type. (Later type, about 62)The caps fit over the nub. If you add clips and use the proper caps it will look worse than just buying the later year caps that fit nubs. You will see the nubs. Original caps will be rare and expensive. Nub caps are plentiful, sort of.
You can, of course, find some original wheels to go with your caps, also rare.

[Walys60]

ahhhh..."nubs" I see what you're saying now. Funny, didn't even notice those until you mentioned it (sigh).

Yea, I definitely want to stick with the original caps. I don't have any attachement to these wheels, other than they looked (until you had to go mention the nubs ) like the originals and were pretty cheap.

Well, I guess the search is on for some wheels that will work.

Thanks All!

[Walys60]

Good point on the rears by the way...I'll look at some pictures for what others have done, and maybe some original ads had pics of it too.

[jrmunn]

My 1964 GMC 1500 came with split rim wheels that all have tabs (including the spare) and hubcaps only on the front wheels. I replaced the split rims with solid wheels so that I can use tubeless radial tires, which provide greatly improved ride and handling. But the original hub caps do not fit the "nubs" and not having hub caps on the front is both ugly and exposes the hubs to weather and damage. So I too would like to know if there is a way use the original hub caps? Or should we be looking for newer GMC hubcaps as an okay replacement?

JRMunn

[bigblockv6]

My 3/4 ton 68 came from the factory with multi piece rims very similar to split rims and the rims don't have nubs rather the clips, so a later model hub cap from a 67-68 can be used or an earlier 62-63 hubcap.

[bigblockv6]

Originally Posted by bigblockv6

My 3/4 ton 68 came from the factory with multi piece rims very similar to split rims and the rims don't have nubs rather the clips, so a later model hub cap from a 67-68 can be used or an earlier 62-63 hubcap.

Disregard my post, I misread your post

[AZKen]

Originally Posted by jrmunn

My 1964 GMC 1500 came with split rim wheels that all have tabs (including the spare) and hubcaps only on the front wheels. I replaced the split rims with solid wheels so that I can use tubeless radial tires, which provide greatly improved ride and handling. But the original hub caps do not fit the "nubs" and not having hub caps on the front is both ugly and exposes the hubs to weather and damage. So I too would like to know if there is a way use the original hub caps? Or should we be looking for newer GMC hubcaps as an okay replacement?

JRMunn

The answer to everybody's question is: IF you want original hardware, use original wheels for original hub caps. If you don't care, use non-original wheels with any cap you want, that fits. Modifying a wheel to fit a hub cap is probably not worth the effort and may look goofy. Clips were used thru 61, then nubs.

[bigblockv6]

Originally Posted by AZKen

The answer to everybody's question is: IF you want original hardware, use original wheels for original hub caps. If you don't care, use non-original wheels with any cap you want, that fits. Modifying a wheel to fit a hub cap is probably not worth the effort and may look goofy. Clips were used thru 61, then nubs. At least on 1/2T. Not positive about 3/4T.

My fathers 62 K-1000 used clips not nubs, from what I've seen some trucks from 62-66 used nubs but some also used clips.. My 68 3/4 also came with clips from the factory.