I collected hubcaps and wheel covers when I was a kid growing up on Long Island in the early 1970's. While it wasn't my favorite, the oldest one in my collection was a simple chrome disc with two semi-circle F O R D stampings around its middle exactly like one of the hubcaps off this 1950 Ford Tudor Custom Deluxe.
My old man didn't find it amazing or humorous when I'd go on and on that I couldn't believe I had a hubcap as old as the one from a "1949 Ford" in my stash. Well, a person's perspective on passages of time, large or small, changes as they get older.
To him, these 1949 era Fords were still the latest and greatest "new thing" not unlike the way us older Gen X'ers look at the internet. Wasn't that long along we were using dialup modems, was it?
Now that you mention it, we were using dialup models longer ago than that Ford hubcap was old back in the early 1970's. Feel ancient yet, methuselah?
So-called the "Shoebox Fords" due to their slab-sided, "pontoon" styling that did away with running boards and integrated the fenders into the body, the 1949 Ford was the hit the Ford Motor Company desperately needed after years of mismanagement by Henry Ford left the company on the brink of bankruptcy.
They were also the first Fords to be released after the deaths of both Edsel in 1943 and Henry in 1947.
Introduced in July of 1948, in the race to have the first new "post-War" car introduced, Ford beat Chevrolet to market by six-months, Plymouth by nine. Whether it was due to a protracted model-year run, customers desperate for a "new car" or the popularity of the cars themselves, most likely a combination of all three, Ford had the best-selling car in America in 1949.
There were minor changes made to the 1950 models like our redhead here. Ford made significant changes to it for 1952 including ditching the simple chrome hubcaps. Ford rebooted their lineup completely for 1953.
This car underwent a comprehensive restoration back in 2002 but still looks fresh. Amazing it has the flathead six-cylinder engine it came from the factory with, you'd think some "Fordie" would have swapped it at least a "Five-Point-Oh" into her by now.
It's cool they didn't but on cars of this vintage, originality isn't as important as cars from the muscle car era. This car has been sitting for months now and has had its price dropped from $23,000 to $19,500. That says a lot about the market for run-of-the-mill, restored or mint condition '50's cars; seems like its slowly melting away as, sadly, those that have memories of these cars pass on.
What's more, frankly, I don't think the cars themselves have the styling chops to be transcendental like, for instance, a 1957 Chevrolet does. Then again, I am a GM girl so my take on this is some skewed.
I've always found the proportions of '49 and '50 Fords wonky, especially the two-door "Tudors". I find the styling dowdy and I have no love for any flathead from any manufacturer. This one has a "three-on-the-tree", brakes and steering aren't boosted. Charming.
My hubcap collection went into the dumpster the day I called in a junk company to clean out my father's garage that was so strewed with junk and trash that we couldn't get one car in it. A constant source of embarrassment, for me at least, I regret now telling the junkman to haul away all my hubcaps in a short-sited attempt for young adult me to make a break from my childhood. Most of them were junk anyways but it would be nice to have one or two of them today.
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