Also considering ordering some of this cheap
black carbon fiber vinyl wrap to redo my wheel covers (fake carbon fiber wrap is somehow cheaper than regular matte black??). Plan is to combine what MetroMPG did with gluing cutout shapes and what The Donkey CRX did with vinyl wrap.
This would involve cutting out shapes using my favorite method of free duct tape covered cardboard and gluing/taping them over the gaps in my alloys. One of the five pieces for each wheel will have a hole in it for accessing the tire valve. Due to the build of the wheels they
should be completely flat after this. However they won't
look perfect, and this is one of the reasons why I'm revising them. After that the plan is to cover the outside of the wheel with the black vinyl wrap, cutting out holes for the lug nuts.
It would look as follows (thanks to Google Images & photo editing tools again
):
My only concern is long term durability of glue+tape+adhesive vs current zip-tie setup.
Main reasons for revising smooth wheel covers:
- Flatter surface (vinyl is thinner than cardboard + no protruding zip ties)
- Two or three grams lighter
- Cleaner look
- Access holes for lug nuts and tire valve
- I'll finally be able to check my tire pressure to see if it's changed since I inflated the tires a couple months ago. Maybe I'll inflate them from 41 PSI to sidewall max of 44 PSI.
If this turns out well, I may redo my lower grille block/ fog light covers with more of the same wrap and remove the ghetto-ish looking duct tape look.
Also considering filling in the grille with expandable foam and then covering the flat surface with the vinyl as well,
but I'm not sure about how easy it is to remove the foam without permanent damage?
I might even go a step further and when I build the ecomod I discussed in my previous post cover it with a
silver carbon fiber version of this vinyl...but it's expensive in bulk quantities, so we'll see.
Now I just need to get back home so I can continue working on my car!!!