[ last update: 12.20.2014 ]
The (new) Cadillac Database©
Cadillac and La Salle Insignia
Hub
caps and wheel cover insignia
[Part 1 - 1902-1979]
Go to Part 2
or go back to the Cadillac insignia index page
or return to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff" index
page
Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
(le résumé en français se trouve en bas de page)
Wheel covers and hub caps have been used on Cadillac and La Salle automobiles from the earliest years of production. On these pages I will try to show you as many of them as possible. The different models available number well over 100. New ones appeared almost every year and sometimes there were two or three different ones for a given year, especially after 1975.
I have always found them very decorative. When we still lived in Switzerland I built up a collection of some 100 of them over a period of twenty years. The finest of them were exhibited in the "music room" of our former home; that's where we used to get together, my brother, some buddies and I to make rock 'n roll noises. I started making a suspended ceiling to show them off to better advantage, but then we decided to emigrate. I donated the collection to my eldest son, Philip [he's from way before Gita]; Philip used to own and operate a slot-car racing club near Geneva, in Switzerland. They were decorated with Cadillac wheel covers! Now he's into home decoration.
The collecting bug got me again soon after we landed in the USA and I now have, once again, a modest but growing collection of these colorful covers.
As I omitted to take pictures of all those in my former collection, this page will be built up gradually as I acquire more covers. You may also contribute to it by sending me a photo of one of the covers on your car, if it is not already displayed here; of course, you will be credited for your submission. In addition, if any Database users can provide better images of the wheel covers in this section, please feel free to do so. Your help is greatly appreciated. In many cases, it is wise to photograph the wheels and covers from a slight angle to better appreciate the depth of the dish (e.g. 1953, 1954-55, 1956, 1961 through 1964).
The purpose of the earliest hub caps was that of our contemporary grease cups over the wheel bearings, that is to keep out dirt and grime.
Very quickly they became a strategic location on the car where the manufacturer could discreetly advertise his products four times (...unless he was a maker of three-wheeled vehicles!)
And then it was not too long before these hub caps and wheel covers became highly decorative adjuncts to the cars themselves.
Before we get too deeply engrossed in the topic, I should like to take this opportunity to thank CLC member, Tom Hall, from California, for his corrections and suggestions how to improve these pages. I am no expert on post-1970 Cadillacs, so do let me know if you find any erroneous captions for these covers as well as any others listed below.
And for those who are looking to buy hub caps and wheel covers or to get additional images, especially of late-model covers, I recommend a visit to this site [the link was working in 2006 but I can't guarantee its permanence].
Early Hub Caps
[ 1905-1929 ]
1. 1a
1b
Thanks to CLC
member, Andrew J. Monahan of the Raritan River Region CLC for suggesting to separate the
pre-1905 hub covers (above),
2 2a 2b
2c 3 4 5
5a 6 7
8 9
10 11 12
12
|
Classic Hub Caps and Wheel Covers
[ 1930-1942 ]
31a 31b 32
33 34
36 37
37a
|
Post-WW2
Hub Caps and Wheel Covers
[ 1946-1979 ]
38 39a 39b
39c
40
40a 41
42a 42aa 42ab 42b 43 44 45 46
47 50 50a 50b
50c 51 51a 51b 51b 52 53 54
55
56
57a 57b 57c
58 59
60 61
62
63
64 65 65b 66
67 67a 69 70
81 82 83 84
87 88 88a
89 90 95 96 97 98
|
La Salle wheel covers and hub caps
[ to come ]
|
Skirts & medallions
|
Custom Wheels from Show Cars
|
Custom
Wheel Covers
[ professional cars and others ]
1 2a 2b 3a 3b 3c 3d 4
5
6 7 8 9
10
|
Various Cadillac hub cap emblems
1 2
3
4
|
|
Go to Part 2
or go back to the Cadillac insignia index page
or return to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff" index page
Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
© 1996,
Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image: superimposed Cadillac and La Salle emblems, 1929 ]