police car wheel question

Hi,

I've got a set of 15x7" police car wheels on my old Studebaker, they are
the ones that look kind of like Chevy Rallyes. Can someone tell me what
size hubcap I need for these? I saw some on eBay that I would like to
bid on if they will work, but unfortunately I won't have a chance to
look at the car and measure until after the auction ends.

thanks,

nate

 

OK well the auction I was watching is over... but for future reference
can anyone answer my question anyhow? I had a set of MoPar dog dishes
that I thought would work, but they didn't quite fit right; lost one
after about 5 miles and then another one a couple miles later. I think
they were just about 9" in diameter but don't hold me to that. Please
tell me that I'm not limited to *only* the caps with the holes in
them... just not the look I'm going for.

thanks,

nate

 

MoPar also offered wheel centers for their rallye wheels that would likely
fit your rims. IIRC, they are a bolt-on affair - i.e., slip them on with
the wheel, then put the lug nuts on over them to hold them down. I don't
recall any part numbers, but I think they came in both black and argent,
although each color had the same p/n so you never knew what color you were
going to get. You may even still be able to get them from DC.

Do a google image search for mopar rally wheels. The centers look like the
ones you see here http://www.akhwheels.com/pages/showWheel.php?pk=166 . You
might also check with Stockton Wheel
http://www.stocktonwheel.com/oem_wheels.htm and it looks like these guys
http://www.texasacres.com/parts/rims.html have something that might work for
$65 each, about 2/3 the way down the page. You can also find them here
http://www.specialtywheelsltd.org/ .

I'm pretty sure they'd fit on the cop wheels, and they sure look a lot
better than the dog-dish hubcaps. I've got a set of the cop wheels also,
but never have gotten around to getting hubcaps for 'em, since they've been
in storage for the last 20 years.

HTH

 

If you're talking about 80's M-body copcar wheels, then there are a
number of alternatives to the "siren" cap with the ring of holes around
the outside. Pretty much any Mopar dog-dish from the 70s should work.
There are plain brushed dishes (like the 'siren' style without the
holes), versions with the Dodge Fratzog in the center, versions with the
Plymouth Sailing Ship icon in the center, etc. Some are pretty hard to
come by, but they're out there. I run the ones with the Dodge Fratzog
sourrounded by a red circle on my '66 Polara
(http://lonestar.texas.net/~sglacker/fleet/66_Polara/wheel.jpg)
which I think are actually from circa 1969-70. The easiest to come by
are definitely the "siren" style because they were used on the 80s
copcars, but I do see the plain brushed version more often than anything
else but the siren dishes.

 

Yes, I believe they are the M-body wheels. Once I get home I'll post a
link to some pics of the car so you can see what I'm talking about. In
an ideal world I'd be running some kind of plain, no-logo stainless dog
dishes and trim rings.

Actually, what would be cool is if I could use the '55 Stude dog
dishes, so it would look stock except for the big fatty tires and
cooling slots, but they are considerably larger in diameter than the
nubs on the wheel. I did try the caps you refer to above (the plain
brushed DD's similar to what you call the "siren" style) and two of
them popped off almost immediately; they apparently were just a hair
too small in diameter, which confuses me.

nate

 

Personally, I'd go with the black or argent wheel centers, black or argent
lug nuts and black or argent trim rings, but I'm the 'sleeper' kind...

 

here's a few pics...

http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel/55coupe7.html

The front wheels in those pics are Ford; I found another pair of cop car
wheels because the plan all along was to run dog dishes (I figure drum
brakes need all the cooling they can get.)

nate

 

Hmmm. That is odd. There are 4 "nubs" on the copcar wheels, TWO of them
have deeper slots than the other two. Normal dog dish installation
procedure is to hook the DD under one of the nubs with a deep slot, then
whack it onto the other one with a deep slot. If the dish is distorted,
it might not hold well.