Found a Cool Hubcap

[ga.prime]

It was almost completely buried in the pond mud. I had seen a small part of it sticking out of the ground all summer since the pond dried up. I thought it was an aluminum can and would have retrieved it a lot earlier because I don't like seeing aluminum cans lying around. But, it was across a fence so it just lay there. Finally, a couple of days ago I was on my 4 wheeler and remembered it and drove around the fence down to where the thing was and it turned out to be this perfectly preserved hubcap. I washed all the mud off and it looks almost brand new. It must have been in there for fifty years or more. Maybe if I go dig around I can find the rest of the car. :lol2:

 

[Bigfoot]

Nice find.

 

[Alan]

Nice find, it's an old Mercury hubcap, it would neat to track down the year.

 

[Aaron]

That's off a '56 Merc.

 

[ga.prime]

Yes, I looked it up at Hubcaps.com and it's the '56.

 

[MO_cows]

Can't believe how good it still looks. One heckuva coat of chrome on that thing.

Now....do you hang it on the wall in your man cave or sell it and make a buck? Or, do some excavating and see if the whole freakin' car is there??????????

 

[M5farm]

I was wondering where I lost it at.

If you need me to describe it., It looks just like the one in this picture .

 

[ga.prime]

:lol2: M5! MO, that hubcap is stainless steel and definitely a wall hanger. I had to hang it around knee high, it was too shiny for eye level.

 

[3waycross]

the 56 merc was a great car........it would however vaporlock if you drove it over Raton pass at high speeds. My uncle had one. He taught us all how to drive by starting us out in the 1930's Rio Speed Delivery pickup , then his 36 Ford sedan and when we were pretty good drivers he would let us drive the Merc.......those old flathead for engines were sweet.

 

[Hook]

That's neat! I wonder how it got there

 

[Jogeephus]

I remember those or something similar.

 

[greybeard]

I had about 50 old hubcaps a few years ago, maybe more, nailed to the top plate beams of a tractors shed. When the wind got up, they made a heck of a racket and I finally took them down and sold most of them. Did some research and at the time, they were worth more as stainless scrap than they were to the collector market. I kept a few--I'll have to try to get a picture of one, if I didn't give them to my son a few months ago.

Those Ford/Merc flatheads were nice, everything right out in the open--except when it came time to set the valves.
I worked on lots of them in my father's auto shop. They were sludgy tho, from having those bypass oil filters (only part of the oil goes thru the filter, while the rest goes to the bearing areas--straight from the pump. Had a tendency to run hot too, even with 2 water pumps--hot because of the really thin castings around the cylinders and in the heads. I still ave the sleeve pullers my dad used, and the precision reamers for the cam bushings, and several rolls of shim stock he used to shim bearing caps with.

 

[lavacarancher]

3 way I believe the '56 merc had a 292 or a 312 in it (I think the later), not a flathead. Never the less a cool car. I worked two summers digging ditches and saved up $800.00 which was going to buy me a '56 merc when I turned 16. When dad found out I had that much money he took it and bought him a '54 international PU and gave me the family car, a '54 chevy four door. Oh well, glad to have wheels back then.

 

[3waycross]

3 way I believe the '56 merc had a 292 or a 312 in it (I think the later), not a flathead. Never the less a cool car. I worked two summers digging ditches and saved up $800.00 which was going to buy me a '56 merc when I turned 16. When dad found out I had that much money he took it and bought him a '54 international PU and gave me the family car, a '54 chevy four door. Oh well, glad to have wheels back then.

You're right about the 56 Ford dropprd the flathead in 53.. It was the 36 sedan that had a flathead in it. I can still hear my uncle cussing that merc, everythime we went to monument lake it vaporlocked.

 

[Alan]

My dad owned a wrecking yard all through my child hood, it was my first real job. 60 cents an hour and I had to punch a time clock, yup a penny a minute. One of the task they told me to do was to around the cars and find four matching hubcaps in good shape bring them in and hang them on the wall in the empty spot with the other hub caps. I think I was 10 or 11, none of the yard monkeys would let me used their tools at my age so I spent most my time checking out ash trays and under seats for change and playing with the guard dog .... My dad said he was a good guard dog, plenty mean, I never saw that side of him. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Yours is nice, and a better story!


This is off a 64 merc maurader.

Dang that car was FAST, 390 super maurader engine.