Center cap - lion tail/no tail

**ozbox** · 18-06-2011, 12:24 PM

Paul..feel free to use these pictures..these are on my hq gts350 coupe which is a 6/71..die cast gts centre caps used for only around first 6 months of production..
I've got a nos one that im trying to find amongst all my crap so i can give you a decent inside and outside shot..

**HQ SS** · 18-06-2011, 01:10 PM

Thanks for that, its good to see one in the flesh as such.
They must be as rare as rocking horse shite if they were made for such a short time.
Cheers Paul.

**ozbox** · 18-06-2011, 02:51 PM

Found it......

Byron gave me this cap which is nos but has some pitting..story goes that these caps would fall off because to keep them on you had to peen over the inner edge which is die cast so it would crack and break..
I found the 4 correct 71 gts rims and 3 caps with a full set of nuts on ebay around 4 years before i found my hq gts..me thinks around 2001..i paid $300 dollars for them which at the time was expensive but i wanted the 3 caps as i knew what they were and how rare...the 4th cap i also found on ebay but it was advertised as a gemini ? cap..cheap it was...and then byron gave me this one when i bought the 350 coupe which as it turned out was missing its original wheels...happy days..

To keep these caps on the rims i have used gasket ultra blue as i dont want to loose any...

**HQ SS** · 18-06-2011, 03:50 PM

Great pictures, wow that sure does show the difference between them now.
Peening then on would a fun job to do and also it means basically breaking it off if you had to put the rim on a tyre machine.
I see that the loin looks to be the same as the next ones so no small changes on that side of things.
Cheers Paul.

**hqgts** · 18-06-2011, 03:52 PM

these might be worth the effort to someone

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWAX:IT

**Rolla** · 18-06-2011, 04:10 PM

This probably will be a really stupid question to most but why do those centre caps have no clips on the back? :errf:

**wbute** · 18-06-2011, 05:49 PM

Because they had to be peened (hammered over on the inside to make them stay on).

They sound like a bastard of an idea and you would wonder how they ever got through to production. Interesting though!

**Rolla** · 18-06-2011, 05:52 PM

Thanks Wbute. I presume these we're only available on HQ? how many months we're these in production before they changed it to clips? :Chin:

**wbute** · 18-06-2011, 05:54 PM

Greg says above about 6 months, so they dont suit sandmans.

**ozbox** · 19-06-2011, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by rcknrlla

This probably will be a really stupid question to most but why do those centre caps have no clips on the back? :errf:

to fit them to the wheel centre you have to lay the rim down on the grond and then put a block of wood under the cap and then hammer the edge over to make them hold..whover thought of this didnt think too well because you do the reverse to take them off to get the rim on the tyre machine..being diecast when you hammer it back to remove them and then hammer them back on they crack and break the edges which meens the bastards fall off....:crikey:...they were only used for around the first 6 months and then the tin type with the decal and clips was introduced...so this type of cap is only correct for a 1971 hq gts...