Two beautiful 1961 Impalas, showing off their sleek new rear ends, and both have dog dish hubcaps? Seems so unlikely, especially so for a convertible. Back in the day, one would not see this.
Here’s the other one:
Same color, but the new four door hardtop style. And the hub caps.
Why would they choose to do this on these PR shots? Odd.
Maybe the “optional full wheel covers” were not available in time for the pics. The obvious airbrushing of wheel details usually looked terrible back then.
Very weird. And the convertible even had the optional 348 V-8:
Maybe it was a pre-production ad and the full wheel covers weren’t available yet. IIRC the full wheel covers for the full-size Chevy we’re new for ‘61.
Perhaps to show off the beautiful color-keyed wheels, even though everyone used them back then?
As a kid, I thought the ’61s were a retrograde step from the space-age 1959-60 models with their fighter jet canopy wraparound windshields. Now, my view has turned around 180 degrees and the ’61s are my favorite of all the X-frame Chevys.
Odd for a PR shot, yes, but with the wheels painted the same color as the car, it’s a really good look.
But you’re right, you’d more likely see this look on a Bel Air or Biscayne than an Impala.
As much as I like a good dog dish hubcap, I think the real star here is the body-matched wheel paint. I think that looks exquisite. I don’t really know if full wheel cover cars also got matched wheels or they were just black.
From personal experience, full covers of the day had more of a tendency to dislodge in hard cornering or on potholes. I don’t know if the fault was the covers themselves or the steel wheels flexing under load. Dog dish caps were less prone to this.
Also, if you parked outside in certain areas, your full wheel covers might disappear overnight. Some folks liked to “liberate” them and rehome them onto older or lower-trim cars.
These days, when only the lowest-spec cars have steel wheels with covers, it’s hard to imagine a time when fancy full wheel covers were desirable and easy to steal.
Aluminum wheels these days have become so ubiquitous that even they don’t get stolen anymore.
It’s rare to see any modern car with wheel covers.
In fact, the only modern car that I can think of that has the dog dish look is a Ford Police Interceptor (aka Explorer ST), but even that looks to be a full wheel, painted black, with a decorative chrome (or just aluminum) center cap.
And the wheel covers are now all plastic and held in place by the lug nuts (so they don’t dislodge in mild cornering). I don’t think I’ve actually seen “metal” wheel covers on a car in the last 30 years or so.
Last metal full wheel covers I can think of were probably Crown Victoria. Most of the fleet-spec 2008+ cars had center caps, looks like there were full covers available through 2011, but plastic. I’m seeing metal covers for Panthers until ’08, probably the last of them.
My hometown PD switched completely from Ford to Chevy one summer. The Chevys had full covers and the covers were everywhere around town. Eventually Chevy gave the department new covers of a different design.
From personal experience, full covers of the day had more of a tendency to dislodge in hard cornering or on potholes. I don’t know if the fault was the covers themselves or the steel wheels flexing under load. Dog dish caps were less prone to this.
If you’ve ever seen the 1974 version of Gone in 60 seconds you can see that in action; throughout the chase the dog dishes remain on the Mustang through every turn, curb hit and even the big jump, but loses all of its outer trim rings. The trim rings clipped on the same way as wheel covers
I simply pulled out of a gas station and a wheel cover popped right off the 73 Polara. Wasn’t at more than 2-3 mph. Easy to get. Then one popped off at 65 mph on the freeway when the car went over a rough spot and shot across three lanes to the center divider. That one was difficult to retrieve. They were then all removed and stored away since they were unique to the car and hard to find. Interesting the 70 Polara wheel covers have never popped off in 10 years.
LIkely Impala price leaders of a sort. Equipped with standard column 3 speed, An AM radio, if that, NoAC. No power anything. Only Whitewall tires. Everything was ala Carte, then. If you wanted to be seen in an Impala but didn’t have the full scratch, Here you go. for only…..????.??
A/C was a luxury back then, and was called “another thing that breaks”. Also, population of South and SW was lower.
I myself, have rather liked dog dished hub caps. Some wheel covers distract and are ostentatious
Shocking! I always thought the cheapest way to dress up an otherwise drab Biscayne or a late-60’s BelAir was to add the optional full wheel covers.
I wonder if someone in the advertising/art department thought the small caps and painted wheels showed off the Whitehall tires better. That’s all I got.
Ya know Paul, I was wondering the same thing!
Interesting that even on the cover of the ’59 Chevrolet brochure, the Impala hardtop has the small hubcaps!
For my newly-painted ’59 Biscayne, I decided to go back to the small hubcaps too! The car just seems to look better that way (for unknown reasons). As others have mentioned above, small hubcaps show off the color-matched rims to great effect! The ’59 Chevy full wheelcovers just look too flashy/gaudy for the lower-line models.
On the other hand, my ’58 Ford Custom 300 looks great with the optional full wheelcovers, as it does in the Ford brochure. My advice–follow the brochure/advertising images whenever possible!
September, 1960 … it seems only yesterday Father was there at Mt Suribachi … but actually 15 years and several months have passed.
I love it ! The art department hit it tight on presentation. Perfect use of a ‘conservative’ approach of a Less is More thinking. I remember back in the day when the Super Cars came out, especially the MOPARS, they all had the poverty caps. Most went up on the wall or in a box because one Just HAD to have them gone. Cragars and Keystones went on during the first week of ownership.
Both of those Chevys look very sharp with the color matched wheels, couldn’t see that if they wore full caps. I have a set of ’66 Buick Riviera /Wild Cat 15 inch full wheel covers that nestle into the wheel rim and leave the outer rim exposed. This will display a band of wheel color. These must have been the base cap, I’ve never seen a set on an actual car or in a picture. I have held on to this set for a long time, all of my previous Rivieras have used the chrome road wheels. If I buy another 50’s or ’60’s car I’d like to use these hub caps instead of custom wheels.
I like both dog dishes and full wheel covers. Some of each are very stylish. Especially like the tri-spinners.
And there’s a 3rd option as others have noted: dog dishes with trim rings. My aunt’s ’61 Olds Dynamic 88 was factory equipped this way, plus it had whitewalls. Very sharp!
Reverse CC Effect: I saw a green ‘61 4 door two days ago, parked downtown. Curbside no less, outside one of our better local taquerias. I don’t think it would have fit in one of the few off street parking stalls.
I read somewhere that Cadillac tried to add body color between the vanes of their ’60 cars’ deep-dish wheelcovers but couldn’t get the process in place until ’61-2, so perhaps it was a auto designer fashion trend that didn’t last long with the public. The look is quite striking to me with some colors, and it’s easier to clean than real or fake wire wheels. I’d like to know how it was done.
1962 version.
Very attractive!
Australian (CKD) assembled RHD Chevrolets and Pontiacs were equipped with “dog dish” hub caps from 1949 through to 1966. Full wheel covers were not even available! From 1967 until the last 1968 models 15 inch rally one wheels with dress rings were used.
General Motors Holden (GMH) during this period, offered accessory NASCO thumb print chrome wheels trims which installed under the small hub caps and gave the appearance of full wheel covers.
This was while from 1949 to 1968 these GMH assembled Chevrolets and Pontiacs were being sold in Australia at Cadillac prices. The ‘working class’ mass market entry level car was the GMH built ‘humble’ Holden which no longer exists as a brand.
Single tone cars had their steel wheels painted body colour, while cars with a white roof had white wheels. But certainly, even as high end luxury cars, dog dish ‘as they appear to be called’ hub caps were the norm, at least in Australia.
I was just pondering that, and trying to recall what the full wheel covers for these might have looked like.
Here’s a survivor ’61 I shot in Maldon, Vic ten years ago.Looks like someone fitted trim rings. And a Ford mirror…..
Peter,
The wheel trims fitted to this ‘61 GMH assembled RHD Chevrolet Belair are the NASCO supplied genuine thumb print accessory wheel trims offered by GMH dealers. These wheel trims are a rare find today and VERY expensive to restore but look far better than any after market wheel.
They were correct for all 1957 to 1966 GMH built Chevrolets and Pontiacs. Basically they were a 14 inch version of the 13 inch wheel trims offered for 1957 to 1962 Holdens
The ‘61 Belair is finished in a rare GMH two tone blue. I only hope this car has survives in this original condition. Few ‘correct’ Australian assembled 1949 to 1968 remain today. Most have been so heavily modified to point that little remains of there GMH heritage and that is a shame.
Australia, has largely lost its unique history with respect to GMH C.K.D. Assembled Chevrolet, Pontiac and Vauxhall passenger cars. Sadly many even incorrectly refer to the former General Motors Holden (GMH) as having simply been “Holden”. Holden of course was just a brand built by GMH and not a car company.
Anyway, hopefully that two tone blue ‘61 Belair remains in original condition.
Here’s another view. Shot in 2013, so here’s hoping it’s still like this. We’re more aware of the value of originality now than back then – well, some of us. I’m guessing that’s a NASCO towbar too, painted to match.
Amber turn signals, plus one.
Mounted on the deck lid so they’re invisible if it isn’t closed (load in the boot/trunk): minus one, and wouldn’t pass muster in North America for that reason.
That mirror is a crime. The sunshade, though, is bitchin’!
A very common accessory here back then, Daniel, almost fitted to more cars then not, the more so in rural areas. Dad’s cars always had them as far back as I can remember.
You’ll like the indicators in the rear shot. 🙂
My understanding is that front sunshades persisted down there for so many decades after they died out in North America because tinted glass was not allowed in Australia until…sometime in the ’90s, I think.
Not completely correct. Tinted windscreens became illegal in Australia from 1969 when the Australian Design Rules (ADRs) came into effect. Prior to January 1969 tinted windscreens were 100% legal in Australia.
It’s not clear when tinted windscreens became legal again, but I believe it was during the early 1990s.
The reason windscreen sun visors were so popular in Australia during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was simply that tinted windscreens during these three decades were near impossible to obtain in Australia. Simple as that.
The typical owner of a new 1961 Chevrolet Belair 4 door sedan in Australia was a company CEO, or other wealthy person. The Chevrolet could well have been chauffeur driven! Such owners did NOT fill the boot (trunk) to the point that the boot lid had to remain open while the car was being driven.
While I appreciate that indeed with the boot lid in the up position the otherwise much safer amber turns signals could not be seen. Nevertheless, in 60 plus years of following these unique vehicles, I have never seen an example driving down the road with an overloaded boot (trunk).
Even if this had occurred, by Australian road laws, the driver would legally be required to provide additional amber turn signals. Respectfully, the suggestion that could cause any problem is ridiculous to say the least.
Bottom line, the export amber turn signals were considerably safer than the single combination all red tail-stop-turn signals used on domestic U.S. 1961 Chevrolets. The USA was advanced in many areas but was hopelessly behind the rest of the world with its crazy unsafe red turn signals
This discussion of how different hubcaps looked on different cars brings to mind a story my Dad once told me how a couple of young guys in the early 60s wondered how a Ford, for example, might look with Chevrolet hubcaps.
Seems the young fellows decided one evening to start on the south end of Main Street and removed one hubcap from a Chevy and transplanted to the next car they came to. They went all the way up the street removing and replacing one hubcap on each car they came to, finally leaving the last hubcap leaning against a telephone pole a block or so away from the last car.
If I remember correctly, about 20 or 30 cars each had one mismatched hubcap. It took the various owners a month or so to get it all sorted out and get their hubcaps back.
I like the look, of both examples.
I collected a lot of brochures as a kid, and was always perplexed when I’d never see appealing products as shown within marketing material, on the street.
The ’77 Volare brochure prominently displayed a nice-looking, Rallye wheel-equipped wagon. Very rarely saw them equipped as such, in reality. Almost always seen exclusively on the Roadrunner.
VOHHH Larrr ayyy! Duh duh duh-duh.
Chrysler even paid to have actress Cathy Lee Crosby model the liftgate. And a member of the music group DEVO, appear in the background. 🙂
Hey, if you’re into your Chevy’s, you may have heard of ‘Iowa classic cars’ on YouTube. Give them a look, they’re all about ’59 to ’61 Chevrolets.
There are 3 more possibilities as to why the Chevrolet Publicity Department used the smaller hubcaps.
1. Often in older vehicle advertising, there was a printed line like this: “Price as shown, $2,306”. Today the disclaimer is “Options shown are available at extra cost. These 2 cars were the more expensive examples, but they were still Chevrolets, not Buicks.
In the 2 photos, I don’t see any options shown. [Back-up lights were standard on the Impala]. No deluxe bumper guards, no tinted glass.
2. The Typical 1961 Chevrolet Impala buyer was in the age range of 35 to 60, and had experienced the depression, either as a young adult or child. It’s likely the previous cars they owned had dog dish caps. So while the Impala may have been an upgrade compared to their previous cars, the look of these 2 Impalas wasn’t seen as overly opulent.
3. There is a fine line in capturing the minds of prospective buyers. Does the advertising make the vehicle look too cheap, or too expensive? The combination of the small caps and the color-matched wheels may have been seen as a mid-level decision by the publicity dept. Consider what these Impalas might look like if the ad was in black & white. In that case they might look better with the full wheel covers.
For example, in an effort to keep costs down, Studebaker in the 1960s painted all wheels Ivory. 1959-63 Larks and the 1964-66 Commanders looked the part of a low cost car when wearing small caps, but the more expensive Cruisers and Daytonas still came standard with the small caps, and they really looked cheap compared to identical cars with full wheel covers, especially if the car was painted other colors [not white].
My buddy bought a 73 Charger, blue with white vinyl top and wire wheel covers. Two times someone stole the wheel covers, so he gets the JC Whitney wheel cover lock cables. HA, pull off the wheel cover and, damn, the wheel cover is still attached to the car, Brilliant. Then one day he hits a pot hole and wheel cover pops off, but, the cable decides it going to hold on to that wheel cover. One massively shredded quarter panel and wheel housing. Time to visit the body shop and pickup a set of mags.
These cars are NOT the same colour. They are similar, but one is GREEN, and the other is BLUE.
Old photos on old paper, m’dude. Maybe the lower car is Seafoam Green or Arbor Green Poly and the upper car is Seamist Turquoise, but even that isn’t certain—unless you imagine GM made the tail light lenses in the two ‘different’ shades of red we see here.
But even if the one car were blue and the other green, whether they were different colours would depend on who’s asking, and where.
I love dog dish hub cap on steelies even on restomods & even on a modern muscle car .Even if it prevents good ventilation of the brakes, it highlights the beautiful body line and it always looks bad ass on a muscle car, especially a Mopar. Even for the 3 other . An old Copo is not a copo without it .
I love this!
The 1961 Chevrolet brochure cover shows the Impala hardtop with the full wheelcovers.
Are we in the Garden of Eden? Is the woman kissing a sheep?
One of the “better looking” , 4 doors “I’ve often thought.
The gas filler cap is on the driver’s side, as it should be. For many years, the General switched that over to the passenger side. When did that happen?
Earliest ones I know of on the passenger side are the 82 J body.
I care less whether the filler is on ⇐ or on ⇒, and more that there’s a little arrow on the fuel gauge to remind me. Either side is hugely preferable to those messy, dangerous-damnuisance fillpipes behind a licence plate down below a low rear bumper bar. GM were in love with themselves over that stupid design on far too many models for far too many years.
Ford did it too. My ’70 Torino had its filler behind the license plate. Moreover, I could never get more than 17 gallons into an allegedly 20-gallon tank. The car had evaporative controls on the fuel tank, and I think that was the problem.
My Focus is on the passenger side and I love it. When going for gas many times the islands are full of cars filling up on the right side of the pumps and no one is on the opposite side except me! Then there is the Mustang, Cougar, and Polara that have rear filler caps and I can use any side.
Our ’65 Impala wagon had dog dishes, but optional whitewalls. Bought off the lot, not special ordered, equipped with 327/PG, PS and AM radio, about $3700 sticker, as I recall. All three Chevy passenger cars we had with 14″ wheels, ’57, ’59, and ’65 where painted body color.
Not a fan of dog dishes alone. A trim ring dresses them up nicely. And a wider wheel where the dog dish doesn’t protrude out helps too. More details in the rim ( think of the round holes in some 1960s Fiat wheels) help. Worst dog dishes ever? The bulging body colour examples on some Benzes. Hideous.
Actually I could see it given the color keyed wheels and the very large WSW tire.
The “very large WSW tire” you make mention of was just the standard width white wall for 1961. In 1962 they were replaced by 1 inch white walls which were known at the time as ‘narrow band white walls’.
Nothing particularly wide about these white walls, they were simply correct for 1961. In the late 1940s and early 1950s white walls were even wider!
Maybe so but I’m not sure how the look would come across if the WSW were thin instead. Several variables at play and my eye was immediately drawn to the wide WSW, at least to me today, before the dog dish which actually comes third as the color of the wheels was the second thing my eyes noticed.
Chevys all came with dogdish hub caps here white walls denoted automatic transmission on GMNZ assembled cars automatics finally turned up in 1960 on Vauxhalls and Chevs
Impala was moved down market from its ’58 high perch, then was main trim line for big Chevys, by ’61 or so. Maybe pic was for ads saying “You can get an Impala for less for ’61!”.
By ’65, Bel Air and Biscayne both ‘bargain basement’, just wondered why two for so long?
I’ve wondered the same on your last point. By ’67 when my mom bought her Bel Air, the price difference was only about $100, which even then wasn’t all that much.
She was a firm adherent of my late dad’s advice to buy the middle trim. But the actual middle trim in those years was the Impala, considering the Caprice was on top.
Since my ’64 Bel Air came with non-original full wheel covers from a ’73 Malibu, I made an effort to replace them with a set of OEM ’64 full-size Chevy dog dish hubcaps. I also had the wheels painted in the blue body color. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Love the look.
Dog dish hubcaps don’t necssessarily cry ot: “Cheep !”. It depends on the combination of cap and rim. Here a MY 1993 Volvo 940 wagon with early Series 200 “dog dishes”. Looks nice, I think.
Outch ! Something went wrong here !
It should have been ” … don’t necessarily cry out: …”
Do not know if it was the keyboard or my fingers that failed.
I beg your pardon, Sirs.