73 Aluminum Wheel Center Caps - NOS vs Reproduction

[YellowHorse]

Having hard time figuring out what would be the closest part to original for hard to find 73 aluminum wheel center caps.

OEM wheels have center caps with five screw holes.
NOS center caps at multiple auctions have 3 screw holes, horse positioned/sized correctly.
Reproduction (under ford licensing) have 5 screw holes, but no ford stamp on the inside of center cap and horse tail touching the outer ring.

What would be best otion to go with for most purist out there?

NOS





Reproduction

 

[Doug's 73 Mach1]

My view is the 3 hole version where you drill and countersink the missing two holes. That way everything looks right. They went with 3 because a number of the screws became broke off when backed out due to corrosion and when broken off, very difficult to drill out and re-tap.

 

[YellowHorse]

My view is the 3 hole version where you drill and countersink the missing two holes. That way everything looks right. They went with 3 because a number of the screws became broke off when backed out due to corrosion and when broken off, very difficult to drill out and re-tap.

I do have one wheel with 2 broken screws in it....so maybe you are right.
I can try dril, counter sink and then glue in a screw head in the hole where broken off screw is ...haha

 

[Mustang_Charlie]

The 3 screw hole ones are the correct originals.
I think you are okay with either. My sons 73 has 3 originals and one repro, and no one notices. The 4th original got thieves while it was parked at a car gathering one evening.

 

[YellowHorse]

The 3 screw hole ones are the correct originals.
I think you are okay with either. My sons 73 has 3 originals and one repro, and no one notices. The 4th original got thieves while it was parked at a car gathering one evening.

Yes, it seems that 3 screw were made as replacement spare parts by Ford.
I purchased like new 3 both caps with ford logo stamped on the inside.

 

[born2cruze]

As you mentioned the OEM ones are 5 screws with the horse tail within the boarder.
Many people at car shows will not distinguish between 5 and 3 screw type centres (many people don’t know that aluminum rims were the only mag optioned in 73) so it all depends on where you show the car and your perspective.
You can go to a machine shop to repair broken screws for a 5 mount set up (use anti seize when installing new screws) and find original type centres on eBay (not cheap).
Depends on you and how far you want to take your car.

 

[YellowHorse]

As you mentioned the OEM ones are 5 screws with the horse tail within the boarder.
Many people at car shows will not distinguish between 5 and 3 screw type centres (many people don’t know that aluminum rims were the only mag optioned in 73) so it all depends on where you show the car and your perspective.
You can go to a machine shop to repair broken screws for a 5 mount set up (use anti seize when installing new screws) and find original type centres on eBay (not cheap).
Depends on you and how far you want to take your car.

Right, 3 screws were Ford updated design. You can always have OEM 3 hole center caps drilled to match earlier version.
I was between buying aftermarket 5 hole center caps or buying NOS Ford 3 hole center caps (same price) - went with Ford OEM 3 hole.