[Alanjnc]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

By the way, I experimented with the black steelies thing too....

Experimented with...its a gateway drug

[Jeff Hamlin]

[sprintbird]

And another one.

[dataway]

Yep, that's exactly the way those cars are supposed to look.

[Jack Gifford]

Aside from aesthetics- "hub caps" are practical for some vehicles. When I used to "wring out" my Pontiac-powered '57 Chevy on twisty Eifel Mountain roads with no speed limits (including the original "long" Nuerburgring), wheel covers wouldn't stay put, due to rims flexing.

[richard sargent]

[richard sargent]

[richard sargent]

THAT'S WHY

[burd]

Dang, love dog dish.

[Tempest]

and another...

[bird72]

I like the hub cap and black side out tire look.

[Steve Barcak]

The poverty cap deal is trendy for now. that's ok. What really matters is the Pontiac engine under the hood.

Back in the day when the cars were new and even for 20 years after they were new. No one would dare show up on a cruise or race with those little caps, it would have been embarrassing. Things change and to each their own. Not a fan of them, ever.
When I was a little kid learning about cars, I learned the first thing you did , before you even bought insurance to drive it, was to add headers and mags. I've always been that way.
I like mags on most of my cars. For factory wheels, I like rally IIs on full size and snow flakes and Honeycombs on certain 1970 and newer intermediate and Firebird models.

[Hillard]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

The poverty cap deal is trendy for now. that's ok. What really matters is the Pontiac engine under the hood.

Back in the day when the cars were new and even for 20 years after they were new. No one would dare show up on a cruise or race with those little caps, it would have been embarrassing. Things change and to each their own. Not a fan of them, ever.
When I was a little kid learning about cars, I learned the first thing you did , before you even bought insurance to drive it, was to add headers and mags. I've always been that way.
I like mags on most of my cars. For factory wheels, I like rally IIs on full size and snow flakes and Honeycombs on certain 1970 and newer intermediate and Firebird models.

I started this thread on a day when I was looking around the internet and kept seeing Pontiac after Pontiac with the dog dishes. So yeah I guess it's some sort of trend now. But some were claiming they're nostalgic. WRONG! Nobody back in the day ran them that I ever saw. Steel wheels without caps...sure, but never dog dishes. Totally agree with everything you're saying here Steve.

[63Banshee]

Originally Posted by Hillard

I started this thread on a day when I was looking around the internet and kept seeing Pontiac after Pontiac with the dog dishes. So yeah I guess it's some sort of trend now. But some were claiming they're nostalgic. WRONG! Nobody back in the day ran them that I ever saw. Steel wheels without caps...sure, but never dog dishes. Totally agree with everything you're saying here Steve.

I can see that for performance cars, but I own/have owned a number of non-performance cars still wearing original poverties.

[Jeff Hamlin]

Originally Posted by Hillard

Some were claiming they're nostalgic. WRONG! Nobody back in the day ran them that I ever saw. Steel wheels without caps...sure, but never dog dish.

I respectfully disagree, these cars where sold to many who did not want to spring for high dollar full wheel disc and/or rally rims.
And many wore the base caps proudly...

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Hillard

I started this thread on a day when I was looking around the internet and kept seeing Pontiac after Pontiac with the dog dishes. So yeah I guess it's some sort of trend now. But some were claiming they're nostalgic. WRONG! Nobody back in the day ran them that I ever saw. Steel wheels without caps...sure, but never dog dishes. Totally agree with everything you're saying here Steve.

My dad was selling these brand new "back in the day". Plenty of cars ran them.

I put my poverty caps on my '64 back when I first got it done in 1994 - so I've been rocking mine for 22 years.

Even back then ('94), I got lots of compliments on the poverty caps because everyone seemed to be running the spinner wheel covers back then.

Sure I've dressed them up now with the trim rings, but that's the "extremely rare" dealer installed option...

[Will]

My dad liked the baby-moon style caps available for the '72 Formula so that's what he bought. When I bought the car from him, changing the wheels was too expensive but adding poly bushings to the sway bars was cheap. Eventually I saved up for a set of Koni shocks but still left the stock wheels.

Here's what it looked like when I bought it -



Here's what it looked like 14 years later (yeah, the paint was a little worse for the wear) with custom 15x10 steelies on it. They make you take off the caps and rings at the track...



And here it is in the driveway around that same time. I dunno, I kinda like the look and would stick with it except that you can't get decent performance 15" tires any more and 18" steel wheels would weigh far too much and probably look kind of goofy if you could even get them made.

[burd]

The 3rd pic of the firebird is sweet. Now days everyone paints their wheels the crappy flat black. I hate the look. And car makers are starting to not do chrome wheels anymore, I don't get it. Put a dog dish on any day for me.
I'll post my Y88 with 78 dog dish. I went to a all Pintiac show once, the tech guy said firebirds didn't come with poverty wheels, I showed the jamoke a pic in my dealer album.

[NAR]

I've personally always loved the look of these bullet style center caps.