Wheels and Rims

[Sylvain]

STANHAS87 said:

The wheels on the Dodge Monaco/Plymouth Fury up to 2002 are - I was told so - accurate as well; the same applies for the Caprice and Ford Crown Vic.

Ah? Sorry, I didn't know that. Not cars from the period I'm collecting. ;D

But what I say about many other Busch models is true, I'm afraid…

[DavidJohnson]

Sylvain said:

Exactly. I am too still looking for the Praliné versions of the Busch/Praliné american cars. But I won't be so rude about all Busch models: the Mustang is available with different accurate sets of wheels (even is the more usual one on real car is difficult to get on the models), and the wheels they use for the 1950 Chevrolet pick-up are fine.

Sylvain,
Yes, your right. I apologize that I was a bit hasty in my assessment of Busch.

I reviewed my collection and it includes the 1950 Chevrolet pickup and the Dodge Power Wagon, both with accurate wheels, and I think they are still offered that way. I know that they used to have accurate wheels on the Mustang and 1950 Buick. I have just purchased one of those Mustang convertibles on eBay. I truly hope they are offering their Mustang coupe with accurate wheels, but so far I have only seen it with alloys.

Busch models which I am seeking are the Mustang coupe, 1957 Chev ( and maybe another 1959 Cadillac). Unfortunately, the examples found in my local hobby shop in the past couple of years have had the alloy wheels.

Dave

[Sylvain]

For my part, I'm looking for Praliné's 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air open convertible and 1959 Eldorado Coupe. Accurate wheels for both of them for the Praliné version, unaccurate now under Busch brand.

For the Mustang, my two models have the same set of wheels, not unaccurate but I think only available on real cars as an extra. I'd like to find a closed convertible with the other set of wheels, which seems to look like the common Mustang hubcap design, but, as I've said, they are not so easy to find.

[cfesmire]

I have the Busch 3 vehicle pack with the '52 Cadillac, the '57 Bel Air and the '56 Corvette (HO 5997) and the wheel covers on the Bel Air are perfect to the original. The Corvette also (although not well done) has a wheel that represents the stock wheel cover of the year. Are these the Praline version that you speak of? The Busch Chevy pickup wheels are a very good representation of the "baby moons" that were very popular for the day here in the U.S. and therefore make them usable on a variety of vehicles.

[skunk]

Speaking of wheels and rims, the Furuta Choco-Egg Nissans all come with prototypically correct rims! Not bad for penny toys, I think that Nissan must be supporting this series quite strongly.

[DavidJohnson]

A danger of being a critic is being proven wrong. Case in point were my comments about wheels on Busch Mustangs.

I have a book on Fords and found that both of the wheels offered on the Busch Mustangs are correct. I think Sylvain already understood that. Standard equipment was a full wheel cover, rather cone shaped, as offered in the past on Busch Mustang convertibles. An option for both 1965 and 1966 were 14" styled steel wheels, which are the wheels on the current Busch offerings of stock mustangs.
www.mustangdreams.com has a lot of color photos of Mustangs in original colors. This link shows a GT with the optional wheels as on the Busch model. I love that GT stripe, partly because it started a trend that helped place food on the family table and pay for my college. (My father was involved in supplying the stripes to Ford/GM/Chrysler).
www.mustangdreams.com/md65GTpage.htm

Sylvain,
For a 1957 Chevrolet one could use some owners license for wheels if unable to locate the Belair wheel covers. Americans have always liked to customize their wheels. As Chester suggested the Busch 1950 Chevrolet pickup wheel would make a good Baby Moon, either left all chrome or as a chrome center with painted steel rims. Another option is chromed steel wheels, as on the Classic Metal Works (1950?) Ford Pickup. Sometimes the wheel covers came from other car makes and models (presumeably from the salvage yard, not off the street) and wire wheels were popular with the more sophisticated. Maybe the wheels on this Busch 57 Chev could be modified to represent wire wheels borrowed from a Buick?
www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/189-45007

Dave

[stanhas87]

Dear Sirs:

At Busch Caprice model, the wheels have the full moon hubcap as the real thing. Later, the hubcap was darkened at the cop versions and this a tad unrealistic.

The Monaco/Plymouth fury have to be darkened and the hub-type hubcap has to be left chrome-colored,as the Mopar cop cars from that period. The wheels were changed in 2003 and as I was told, not so realistic.

Another day I was holding their Crown Vic - the one introduced in 1998 - and the wheels only lack the Ford oval logo (in a way,that is asking a tad too much).They are spoked as the ones present at the real car. As I was told, their miniature was based at the Lindberg 1/25 scale model kit.

[Sylvain]

cfesmire said:

I have the Busch 3 vehicle pack with the '52 Cadillac, the '57 Bel Air and the '56 Corvette (HO 5997) and the wheel covers on the Bel Air are perfect to the original

Hey, I've never thought of that! I've never realized that the wheels in these packs, which are not chromed, may still be the old Praliné's ones, and therefore accurate. Thanks, Chester! And my apologizes to Busch…

DavidJohnson said:

Standard equipment was a full wheel cover, rather cone shaped, as offered in the past on Busch Mustang convertibles. An option for both 1965 and 1966 were 14" styled steel wheels, which are the wheels on the current Busch offerings of stock mustangs.

That's what I thought. I thought it was an option because I've seen such wheels only on a 1965 picture of a Fastback. But I didn't know it was for 1965 and 1966 models only. Thanks for the information!

DavidJohnson said:

As Chester suggested the Busch 1950 Chevrolet pickup wheel would make a good Baby Moon, either left all chrome or as a chrome center with painted steel rims.

I've done this (in fact, not the Busch Baby Moon wheels but very similar), on a 1957 Chevrolet coupe, but to make it looks like a Two-Ten Coupe and not like a Bel-Air. Two-Ten models had painted steel rims with small chromed hupcabs in the center as a standard.

[DavidJohnson]

Sylvain said:

That's what I thought. I thought it was an option because I've seen such wheels only on a 1965 picture of a Fastback. But I didn't know it was for 1965 and 1966 models only. Thanks for the information!
*******************************
Sylvain,
As you are quite interested in wheel covers, my book contains some additional information for the 1965-1966 Mustangs. The stamped steel option wheels (as on current Busch models) are seen in photos of a 1965 fastback, 1966 convertible, and 1966 GT fastback. All of these photos are FordMoCo or ad agency photos with the model year placards mounted as license plates. So it appears that these wheels were available as an option on any of the 1965-1966 Mustangs.

There also was an optional simulated wire wheel hubcap with a spinner. This wheel cover is seen on several of the convertibles on the www.mustangdreams.com site. A closeup photo is seen when opening the link for "1966 Convertible white/red". The website caption implies this was for 1966 only, however in my book it is discussed in the 1965 section.

As you probably know the Mustang was introduced mid-way through the 1964 model year. There was a lot of media attention and I remember going to a shopping mall to see some of these new cars (I was 9). Depending on the source being read the introduction model year is referred to as 1964, 1964 1/2, or 1965. The 1966 was very similar to the 1965. There probably are some external spotting features for model year, but I don't know what they are and did not catch it in a quick read of my book. I assume there was some change in paint colors offerings.

best regards,
Dave

[BillC]

Sylvain said:

I've done this (in fact, not the Busch Baby Moon wheels but very similar), on a 1957 Chevrolet coupe, but to make it looks like a Two-Ten Coupe and not like a Bel-Air. Two-Ten models had painted steel rims with small chromed hupcabs in the center as a standard.

The Bel Air came standard with the small "dog-dish" hubcaps. Full wheel covers were an option.

The small hubcaps were actually quite popular with the customizers of the time. Add a nice paint job, a pair of teardrop spotlights and add the Busch whitewall tires.

[Sylvain]

BillC said:

The Bel Air came standard with the small "dog-dish" hubcaps. Full wheel covers were an option.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the information, Bill!

And thanks Dave for your interesting post about the Mustang!

[BillC]

Sylvain:

One other thing to note is the '57 Bel Air had different types of wheel covers. The biggies were the spinner wheel covers that are much sought after now.

If you check Busch Accessory 49951, you'll find a set of wheels that very much resemble the chromed "Moon" wheels popular on cars back then.

I think I have an old Praline Bel Air somewhere. Now I'm tempted to go back an do a bit of '50s customizing.

Bill C.

[cfesmire]

Not to regress here but back to the Busch Mustang. Back in the 60's it was everyones' dream to own a set of Cragar mags. The rally version (47552) of the Mustang has a very convincing set of the Cragars except that they have what looks to be powder finish spokes where the Cragars were all chrome. Another excellent choice for your 50's conversion Bill.

[BillC]

I know. If I can persuade Busch to release those wheels as a separate item, I will also ask for chrome versions.

Bill C.

[Sylvain]

BillC said:

If you check Busch Accessory 49951, you'll find a set of wheels that very much resemble the chromed "Moon" wheels popular on cars back then

Bill,

Thanks for the tip!