Locomobile Hubcaps

Whiling the day away, looking and my rolling chassis, I gazed upon the rather plain looking hubcaps....

So I did a little Google Image research to find what other early automobile's did with their hubcaps. Now admittedly the 1899 Locomobile did not have any special insignia, but this is a replica and adjustments to its design is fair game up to a point. Below I found an early Locomobile hubcap.

And I thought the medallion would look pretty nice on the Lyka. So I did a little playing around with the image to color the medallion in my Lyka's color scheme. See below.

The yellow represents a natural brass finish, with red crescents and lettering on a black background.

Again taking to the internet I found a company that makes all kinds of replicated medallions, for collector bicycles, antique cars and motorcycles. Below is a sample of a medallion they can produce.

As you can see very similar to the design I would like. So I drew up a sketch and submitted my images for a quote. Below is the proof artwork from Nostalgic Reflections Co.

The left side is their image needed to photo etch the piece of brass, the right is a mock-up of the color scheme. And finally again with my crude image abilities I have mocked up what the medallion would look like on the Lyka. If any other builders desire these hubcaps, I would be happy to provide my contact. I'm sure they can colorize the medallion to your specific scheme.

I have committed to paying for the setup (non-recurring expense) and have been given a quote of $55 per medallion. I have received Kits 9 & 10, but I'm a little behind on some other projects and hope to resume my build next week.

I have added a link to the sketch I made that I submitted to Nostalgic Reflections: Locomobile Hubcap Sketch.

Locomobile Tool-Carrier

Space on the Lykamobile Steam Car will be very limited, as it was in 1899 for the Locomobile. The Locomobile Co. patented a tool carrier that reportedly took up very little space. They state as one of the objects for their tool carrier that the tool carrier "shall occupy but little space and shall be located on the vehicle as not to form an obstruction, but to be readily accessible and also to be concealed when not in use". Below you will see an image taken from their patent showing the location of the tool carrier. It is sandwiched between the outer engine flap and the engine and is depicted as ITEM 1 in the drawing.

Below is the patent drawing of the tool carrier in more detail.

Looking at the picture below, the tool carrier appears to be made from cow's leather or leather suede. It is hard to tell, but in the Genealogy of the Locomobile book, they refer to the tool carrier as a "leather flap"

 

And a better image taken from the Steam Car Club of Great Britain (www.steamcar.net).

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to attempt making this leather flap, but it would be nice to have this and the tools while steaming around the neighborhood. The following is a link to an image of the written part of the patent if one would like to read the actual patent: Tool Carrier Written Part of Patent