Original finish for all four "hub caps"

[squidtone]

As I sat there scrubbing, sandblasting, straightening and sanding my original hub caps (the little cup-like things), I wondered if I should treat the ol' Jeep to a new set of hubcaps. While my goal is to keep the original "patina" in most cases, my caps are dinged and pitted with rust, and would have to be painted.
What were these caps like when new? Zinc or Cad plated? Shiny? Or just painted?
I see the new ones are some sort of silver-ish plating. If that is the original finish, I think I'll go for it.

I did "splurge" on chrome closed cap lug nuts; the full set of 10LH and 10RH was 18 dollars from a vendor on ebay. (I purchased nuts from them on other projects...very good quality) they were cheaper than any original style open acorn style nuts I could find anywhere.

Thanks.
Dave

[Tumbleweed]

Dave,

A little bling on these rigs is okay in my book - actually with black rims, chrome nuts look pretty good!

George

[athawk11]

Most of the early photos appear to show black caps.  Of course...the photos are shot with black and white film.

[macrisel]

Who was the vendor on ebay?  My local stores want an arm and leg for chrome lug nuts and I have been hit and miss on finding good quality ones online and swap shows.  The last set I bought for my truck were very poor quality and the chrome "caps" spun off the lug nuts about the third time I rotated my tires..

[squidtone]

Macrisel,
Lug Nut Guys
is the seller.
Astonishingly enough, they have some remaining sets of 1/2-20TPI conical seat lugs, 10 pcs LH 10 pcs RH for 14 bucks shipped.
Those are listed as fitting Mopars from the 60's (Mopars also had LH lugs on the left side) but fit the Willys too.
Good luck!