MTFCA Forum

Were the "backgrounds" on the hubcaps for 1912 & 1913 painted black?

'12 polished brass, '13, background painted black.

Black oxidized

How are the Canadian hubcaps from that era different from the US made cars?

1912 and 1913 American hub caps are totally different. I would assume a Canadian hub cap looks like a 1912 American.

One of the hubcaps on my car.There is a raised edge around the front but it's very faded.

Darren-
That style came out in July, 1911, but most cars of that era still used the earlier style. I had these restored for my Oct-Nov 1911 car.
The background should (and will) be black oxidized. I suspect the hubcaps you have are correct for your car.

On April 16, 1912 (the day after the Titanic sunk) MADE IN USA was stamped beneath the Ford Script. (Has anyone ever seen one?)
On May 13, 1912 the MADE IN USA was embossed (raised), just like the script.


On May 7, 1914 the background was black enamel, instead of oxidized.

I have seen this type of hubcap, which I believe to be Canadian (since there is no MADE IN USA,) but could only guess on the year. The small script would lead me to believe late 1917. I have seen these nickel plated, too.
download/file.php?mode=view&id=12960&si ... 7504012300 I have see nickel plated hubcaps with MADE IN CANADA, but they all have had the smaller script.
I have never seen a tall script hubcap with MADE IN CANADA. Has anyone? What hubcaps are on other Canadian cars 1913, 1914, 1915?

: ^ )

Very cool Keith! Thanks everyone for chiming in!

That's very interesting, Keith. My Oct-Nov 1911 car has this type, believed to be originals. .

Please pardon my ignorance... but how would I go about applying this black oxide background to my hub caps? I looked online and all the methods I saw were dipping the part and turning everything black.

Any insights?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike-
I have heard good reports about this product:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BIRCHWOOD-CA ... Z/23237826

Here is the finish it leaves..
https://www.tested.com/art/makers/46430 ... or-part-5/

: ^ )

To add another one to the discussion, last year I used Caswell's "Flemish Grey" with good results. It was tricky in that it was very particular about the soak time. Too long and it's like the black layer would get thick, flake off, and you were back to starting over with yellow brass. It wasn't difficult, you just had to pay attention and leave the, "if a little is good, more must be better" mentality at home.

I spray can the center of the cap, and then remove as much of the paint from the script as possible. After it dries, I hand sand the script with very fine sandpaper. Been doing it for years.

Walter, those are nice results on your fasteners! I gotta remember this to apply to some repro hub caps which came with my 1915 cutdown.

Andy B.

So I did this....two of the original hubcaps were very badly cracked so I got a couple of new ones and relegated the bad ones to the tool box....

I used gloss black paint and a very tiny brush, then some 0000 steel wool to bring out a little better definition than my shaky hand would allow, and to give a sort of matte look you get like the anodizing gives. I need to correct all the little mistakes......

Nice work, Darren. It is easy to spot the differences between the originals and the reproductions.

Phil, I don't know when the later style hubcaps started to appear on cars.
I don't know what came on my car from the factory because old Mr. Parkes had these on the car during the late 1920's:
Unfortunately there were not on the car when I got it.
However, I do have four of these:
Which are pretty close and would look kind of cool if they were brass plated.

Sorry about the thread drift, Darren.

I tried some Birchwood Casey Brass Black, but am not super impressed with the result:

They look good in the pix, Keith. What do you find lacking ?

No one has posted photos of a true 1913 hub cap, which is slightly different than the '14 and later styles. So here is some photos!