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I am missing one hub cap for my TR 3. It's omission detracts somewhat from the very recent rebuild --newly painted wheels attached for the first time yesterday, only to find long stored hub caps box only contained three correct items. Any help with an improvement on the suggestion that I have but three wheels on my wagon and the provision of a  hubcap would be gratefully appreciated. 

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David,

I was in need of a set of hubcaps for my 3A a few months ago and a search on eBay led me to a seller called “classicxcarxspares”.

They sell a range of hubcaps for various early cars and claim that they are made in Birmingham.

“Pah !!!” I thought. Probably made in some sweatshop in India.
The address they give turns out to be a PO box in a Birmingham Post Office, leading me to think even more so that they were imported.

Then I did a bit of digging…

Turns out that there is a company that has been making hubcaps and other things in Brum for over 100 years. Quite possible that they were the original suppliers to all of the UK manufacturers in the 50’s onwards.

http://www.hipwellarden.co.uk/hub-caps/4585579871
(Note this is the company that makes the hubcaps, they only supply to the trade.)

So I guess that the eBay seller was telling the truth and I was wrong. (Apologies.)

I ended up buying a set of brand new hubcaps from a person who had them but did not need them. They came packaged in Moss boxes and had a label inside saying “Made in Taiwan” so I guess there is more than one manufacturer. The ones I have do not have the red painted backside, but apart from that they seem fine. Not sure about the chrome quality of the Taiwanese ones compared to the UK ones, but if I had the choice now I’d get the ones made in Brum, purely for nostalgic reasons.

Hipwell also have an interesting page in their archives that show various 60’s accessory brochures . I get the impression that if it was a spun metal part on a 1960’s car then Hipwell made it.

http://www.hipwellarden.co.uk/our-archive/4594003999

Charlie.

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