[Patrick]

The 2010 Prius comes with alloys that have 10 spokes, supposedly to lighten the wheels. Toyota then designed a plastic wheel cover to improve the aerodynamics, but there are still holes in the cover (can you say "marketing?").

I wanted to make smooth covers for the wheels, so I bought a 16" teflon-coated pizza pan at Walmart. But my better half nixed that idea based on how it looks (go figure), so I decided to try a plastic coating. I wanted something that would be easily removable and return the looks to stock should I decide to sell or trade the car sometime in the future.

I bought a heat-shrink storm window kit at Lowe's for about $8.50. There should be enough material in the kit to do 2 cars. I took off the wheel cover and cleaned it, then set it over the plastic material. I used a marker to draw a line about 1" outside the cover on the plastic and cut it out with scissors. Then I applied the double-stick tape to the back side of the cover, removed the tape backing and stuck the plastic onto the tape. I then used a hair dryer to shrink the plastic, removing any wrinkles (too bad this doesn't work on humans!).

This stuff is so transparent it doesn't even look like there's anything on the cover. I'm sure the plastic will show up when it gets some dirt on it, though. I'm considering painting the plastic. What do you think I should go with: 1) same color as the car; 2) bumper chrome; 3) aluminum; 4) something else? The plastic very smoothly transitions all of the areas of the cover together, making the surface almost completely flat. I think this is a better setup than the pizza pan as the pan sticks out about 3/8" further and has lumpy transitions at both edges. I don't know how durable the plastic will be, but it was cheap and will be easily reversible if the plastic gets damaged.

Attached are some pics of the process, the materials, and the results.