We recently picked up some increasingly hard-to-find vintage single bar flipper wheel covers:
These wheel covers were also called one-bar spinners, ripple discs, Hollywood hubcaps, and many combinations thereof. Whatever the name, they became immensely popular in the 1940s, partially due to the way they reflected light while in motion, and they were practically a requisite for customs of that era.
They were an aftermarket accessory, offered by many companies like JC Whitney and Calnevar.
Cadillac did indeed set the “standard of the world” in this case, as the single bar flippers sold by these companies were modeled after the Cadillacs of the 1930s:
There was variation in both the grooves around the edges and the type of bar. Two of the ones we recently acquired feature a unique Art Deco style bar:
The vintage wheel covers are made of solid steel and weigh more than three pounds each. Similar hubcaps are still being manufactured and are available online for around $40 apiece. It is hard to compete with the quality of the originals, but they still look good on a custom:
