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Old 03-10-2009, 10:24 PM   This thread is in the EcoModder Project Library | #1 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
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Cheap-o Smooth Wheel Covers

In the long tradition of making car mods quickly with coroplast, I just did up one proto-type wheel cover.

My truck has these crappy fake chrome rim covers, which I have always disliked. When I started seeing pizza-pan wheel covers on Ecomodder, I got very jealous.

Tonight, I realized that my crappy fake chrome rim covers ARE THE PERFECT STARTING POINT for some aero hub caps!

Here's one of the rim covers off the truck.



On the back of it is sort of a circular spring clip thing that keeps it on the wheel.

After popping the rim cover off, I set it down on some salvaged coroplast ( thanks Republican Party!) marked it, and cut out the circular plastic.

I then ran four self-tapping screws straight through the coroplast into the plastic rim. The hardest part was just that I had to predrill it, because of the extreme angle of the rim.

Here, you can see the screw sticking all the way through the rim.


And here's the whole thing back on the truck.


This was really super-easy to make. I wish I would have had some plain, white coroplast to use, but hey, recycling is great too!

I don't think the little exposed "tubes" in the coroplast is a big deal right now. This is more a mock-up than anything. A slightly thinner solid plastic would be better.

I have a little bit of aluminum left over from when I built my camper:

That aluminum is just about the right thickness, and it's reversable, silver on one side, white on the other, perfect to match my truck!

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