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[chris.dennis@rimmerbros.c]

I have seen a couple of photos of heralds with non uk spec hub caps,instead of the hub cap just covering the the center of the wheel they cover the whole wheel.The center part is more pointed and around the edge they have cut out slots .I have had a good look in all the original parts books but cannot find any listings for them ,were they standard on american 1200 heralds or fitted by the dealers.The reason i ask is i have a friend in North Carolina who is missing two and i cant track any down.

[herald948]

These were US dealer options on Heralds and Spitfires from about 1963-68. They were called "Air-Flow" wheel covers and were a variant of a wheel cover manufactured by a US company called Del-Met and used on American cars such as the Chevrolet Corvair and Plymouth Valiant and even the early AMC Gremlin. The ones on Triumphs were usually "directional" in that the vanes were oriented either left or right to actually scoop cool air to the wheels, and they were stamped in ink LEFT or RIGHT on the inside.

They actually are not difficult to find, as they occasionally pop up on eBay and elsewhere. The trick is getting the proper ones (direction-wise)! Not everyone knows that they're directional and, indeed, the ones from the early 1970s AMC Gremlins are identical except that they are NOT directional (vanes flattened out somewhat). (NOTE: the Corvair and Valiant versions have their respective marque emblems stamped in the center, so they're not quite correct although otherwise similar in appearance to the plainer Triumph ones.)

[chris.dennis@rimmerbros.c]

Thanks for that .