For the last year or so I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rims on the van. Right now I have the stock 14 inch rims on the van with new tires. The van didn’t come with hub caps and the previous owner spray painted the steelies silver. I’ve been debating on what to do, either buy bigger rims (then new tires again) or keep the rims and paint them a different color, or try to find one of the many styles of hubcaps to fit on the van. Instead of spending tons of money on bigger rims and a new set of tires I decided to keep the ones I have since the tires are brand new, and look for a set of hub caps.
I have seen many different styles of caps for vans, beetles, campmobiles, and buses but was unable to pinpoint which ones I needed for my vanagon. I decided to go to the Iola Car Show here in Wisconsin to see about finding some hubcaps and maybe some helpful information along the way. If you’ve never been to the Iola car show in Wisconsin it is HUGE. Half of the grounds is a swap meet with anything from car and motorcycle parts to collectable auto memorabilia and the other half is a car show.
I got there early so I could beat the rush of people and try to find a set of hubs. I walked the entire swap meet grounds for 4 hours and had only found 3 non matching VW hubcaps. I stopped for a bite to eat and after debating whether to give up and go to the car show portion I decided to keep looking. After walking for the 4 hours in 87 degree weather, in the very last row I found a vendor with a trailer full of VW parts. It was glorious. And there were a few sets of hubs on the ground.
After a few minuets of chatting with the vender he pointed me in the right direction and I bought a set of chrome hub caps. They were a bit rusty and dented but I was not looking for anything pristine. I got them home and cleaned them up with a bit of chrome polish and a product called NEVER DULL which worked really well. While they don’t look brand new by any means they sure are shiny!
Vanagon Nomad 