Four styles of 47-48 Kaiser Frazer hubcaps````````````````````````````

[Gordie]

Well, I knew about the two styles one with the red painted Kaiser or Frazer lettering and the later type that were plain and fit the later wheels with the clips but when I saw a nos early cap offered on eBay with no lettering I thought it must be a mistake but bid on it anyway.  Upon receipt of the cap sure enough it was the plain type with no lettering made for the early wheels with knobs instead of clips.  I looked it up in the parts book and they are listed for either Kaiser or Frazer so they must be a transitional wheel and hubcap used for a short period of time before the change-over to the wheels with clips.  I also learned from the parts book that the early caps were available with either black or red lettering.  We've still got lots to learn about our Kaisers and Frazers.

[joefrazer]

So you're the guy who outbid me on that cap!! Yes, in 1947 some of the caps without lettering did fit wheels with the knob style wheels. I have 4 for my early 47 but all have varying degrees of road rash.

[Gordie]

In reviewing factory photos I found a couple of early '47 Manhattan's with lettered hub caps so these plain ones must have been used after March 1947.  Congratulation on having an original car that used these .  All '47-48 hub caps are very difficult to find in nice condition.  I hope you were the lucky winner of the nice later cap in that auction.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

In the first full year of car production, Kaiser-Frazer had to revert to various back-up supply schemes to keep the production line going.  While it was not as bad as Hudson's sending trucks out across Michigan each day to scour rural hardware stores for hardware to cover the next day's scheduled production, K-F went to various companies (some small, some large) as secondary sources to keep the plant running (even if the cost per unit was much higher than what they expected to pay).  This went from hubcaps to tires to glass to.....

Sometimes the different sourced items got separate part numbers, other times they were mixed with the "normal" variation.