Difference in 1/2 ton painted caps

[72 tigger]

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I just noticed that my blue bow tie cap is different from the yellow one I just painted- the outer and inner ring is a little taller on the 69-72 (rh) than the 73-75 (lh).

[72 tigger]

2nd pic

[factorystock]

Yes there is a slight difference in height due to new tooling which occurred around 1975. So you'll find '73 thru '74 yellow bow tie caps indentical in styling and height to the '69-'72 blue caps. The slighty lower cap is the '76 thru '78 version. Yes, up to 1978, base models continued using this style painted cap up thru the 1978 model year, while higher trim '76 thru '78 and later pickups got a newer flatter style aluminum caps. 1978 marked an end of an era of GM offering painted steel hubcaps on new pickups.

[special-K]

And they were commonly found on StepVans and ValuVans

[dfwright]

Interesting. I found a similar difference on the full wheel covers. The blue bowtie covers are heavy stainless steel, while the yellow bowtie covers are much lighter. Chrome, I guess.