Eldorado Seville FWD Wire Wheel Center Caps

This is the rare Appliance Real Wire FWD wheel......    Many people call this the factory wire wheel, but actually it was not a factory option.  Many cars came new with them on, but the dealer added them just as they did Vouge Tires.  However most people including myself, consider this wheel the single best option for a 79-85 FWD Seville/Eldorado for the fact its wider, but not too wide, it has a better offset and its a real quality wire wheel.  Appliance is the factory manufacture of the cadillac factory RWD wire wheels, those were factory produced on the cars, these were not... but should have been.  The Eldorado looks really GOOD on these wheels vs cheap hub caps or even the alloy touring wheels.  Finding a good set is going to be hard and a set that actually has a good set of center caps and trim rings can cost you as much as 5K for perfection in just the wheels.  If you are sitting there with check in hand, these wheel are not easy to come by and this set took me years to put together with the caps being the hardest part.

Now you can find the wheels from time to time... You may even have a set on a car you own... But the center caps I bet are in bad shape, lost or flat broken.  Here is a solution in the works...... As a partnership between GM-Classics.com and Dusold Enterprises, we have taken it upon ourselves to custom reproduce an original Appliance Center Cap... But instead of plastic, its alloy.  Instead of using a 2 cent silly decal, it uses a real factory 84-92 hubcap emblem.   The set below if for a Commemorative car, thus they are gold.  Normally they will be red centers and silver outline.   As if this moment, this is over 4K to do just this... However, we have a mold now and we can make more, and on a larger scale, these can become affordable.   I am looking for a group of people who would like some but we need enough to where you are not paying 1000 a set for some caps.  If interested, email me.   If we can put together about 800 caps/200 sets, the cost can be a realistic.

More to come....

You can email me at Cadillacman@mcsmk8.com

 

CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR AN EXTREME BLOW UP!

Exact mounting, size and all.  Just quality!

Red or Gold.  Gold is for the few Commemorative cars.

Left Side, Real Alloy Made Cap using factory hubcap emblem.   Right Side, plastic original with cheap sticker...  and NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE.

 

Some information below on Eldorado Wheels and Tires.

Vogue tires and a word about what people "think" they remember on tires of the 80s. 

First thing I would like to point out that will be an eye opener to many is the fact 1985 cadillacs came with small white wall tires..... Here is the center picture of the 1985 Cadillac brochure;

1985 Cadillac Brochure Photo

Now the interesting thing is that 1984 was the last year for the 1.5" white wall, so yes, you have seen these cars with the bigger white wall on them, just not all of them.  People tend to gravitate to the final year Eldorado in 1985 but all seem to think that the original tires are the big white wall.  That is not correct.  In 1985 SOME Eldorado convertibles ONLY (such as this one) may have had the larger white wall on them due to the fact they were built early on in mid 84 and sent to ASC before the larger white walls ran out.  Also the 225/70 15 touring size was used on the Convertibles as they have the touring suspension in them, and quicker front gear ratio.... even though they do not wear a "touring suspension" badge.   No coupe or sedan had anything but the thin white wall in 1985.  Because many people did not like the thinner white wall, the Vogue tire was often substituted by the dealer for an additional cost.  Vogue is a VERY good tire, but because they actually are plentiful and still available today, people have become tired of looking at them for many reasons.  The top being gangster cars running them giving the tire a really poor image.  This is a classic case of everyone wanting what they cannot have in other tires.  You see many of my Eldorados on the larger white wall.  These are mega low mile examples on their ORIGINAL tires of the day.  Some 85s have original 84 tires on them, just because it is too hard to explain to those that "remember" only what they want to.  I have even paid 3000 to get an NOS set of those Polysteel tires too, so keep that in mind when you must have original.

One thing needs to be understood on tire sizes is that the correct size and the best overall size for the 79-85 Eldorado is the 225/70 15.  Early cars had 205/15 75s, but this was really a poor size too and later became substituted for the nicer 225/70 15.    Do not confuse a 225/70 15 with a 225/75 15.  That 225/75 is nearly a 2" taller tire!  That is a huge difference and will not work on these cars. If you try it, you are going to be asked by many to take the car off the road due to it being an eyesore to the rest of us.  I mention that 225/75 15 size as it is available through companies like American Classic Tire today as a solution for a 1.6 white wall and is often mistaken as a size for the Eldorado.  Bad news is as of this moment there are NO easy alternatives for a 225/70 15 in a larger white wall other than Vogue tires... Except one... You can custom make a tire through Diamond Back tire with a "glued" on white wall that does not look too bad.  But 1000 bucks is what its going to take and then you end up with a tire that has no labels and up close looks kind of funny.  A good tire though and a true alternative. 

The reason I am going into detail with all of this is because I have been petitioning American Classic to build a 225/70 15 for the Eldo/Seville.  After some time they have agreed to do so and the tires will be out in probably a year or sooner offering an actual "what you think" is correct tire for 85 cars and truly correct for 79-84. I look forward to this and hope to have a few of the first sets myself for cars like this one.

Now on to wheels;

What many people see that really attract them to a car are the wheel and tire combination.   People all love them, but when it comes time to actually paying for what some of these vintage wheel/tire combinations cost, most get weak in the knees.  Some people want to play the "infinite purist" part preaching only original, but they get shut down every time in side by side comparison of what is more appealing to anyone that views it, knowledgeable or not.  Many of the Eldos you have seen on my site that lots of people think are "original" are really era correct aftermarket wire wheels from days gone past.  Duplicating these are not easy, the ones on this car are that of hard work to find and more money than I can explain to the average person.  About 6K is the wheel/tire combination on this car.  30 years later, its hard to find this stuff new, and that is what I did.  Below is the line up of era correct factory and aftermarket wheel options available to these cars;

Factory cap.

Personally I hate hub caps on any car, I think they are a cheap solution from the mfr, and any automotive designer will tell you the same thing.  Was the easy way to cut cost! But on these 79-85 Eldos, cheap wire hub caps slapped over thin steel wheels are generally what 99% of the cars came with.  The factory had 2 other wheel options.  The touring wheel, that are alloy wheels that actually had a couple of different styles over the years too, but as a whole looked like what is below;

 Much of the aesthetics driven crowd do not like these wheels, but they really are the best wheel on the car that is actually factory as they are alloy and have a better offset than the steel wheel with the cheap cap.  They will drive better than all the rest of these wheels too.  These were not offered on the 84-85 convertible but are really the best addition to a car but not widely accepted for what I guess to be aesthetics reasons.  Really on a wide white wall, they look pretty darn good and are a great option to use over hub caps.

 The other was a rare alloy fake wire Below.  Kind of neat,  but still a fake wire front over a relatively cheap alloy wheel and had as poor of offset as the steel wheels with a very dull finish.  This is a FWD wheel only and very rare.  The problem with these is they corroded fast even on the best cars making it really impossible to find a good set without resurfacing them.

Others you see are aftermarket.  Below is the Appliance wire on the red car, the very wheel we are making caps for.  Click for zoom. 

Another alternative that was available in 1980s and is still available today is the Dayton Wire.  The Dayton wheel offers the best of all the factory and aftermarket alternatives in terms of the quality of the wheel itself.  The bad thing about the Dayton is the Offest.  They have a good negative offset that I like to see to them have, but its actually a bit too much for some people's taste.  They are polar opposites to the factory sunk in steel wheels.  Still a good wheel, a very expensive wheel, one you can even get today too.  A nice turn key and available addition that is 1000 times better than the cheap factory fake wire cap;

Below,  factory "poverty caps" with Vouge Tires.  A common less expensive and very available approach... you just don't have real wires or a good stance!!!;

 

 

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You can email me at Cadillacman@mcsmk8.com