Acrylic or Lexan wheel covers

[graydonengineering]

Originally Posted by Vekke

Did you use UV resistant and high quality zipties which were 1.5/8 " wide?

I have run across these in my endless browsing of hardware but have yet to try them out. How do they hold up?

[Vekke]

Originally Posted by mwebb

just use bolts
drill and tap

4 bolts is fine up to 70 mph , i never go faster so i dunno if 4 bolts is good enough at 71 mph or above

On my experiences that kind of solution will hold up to 110 MPH if plastic is strong enough... Drilling is the most secure option to attach if you have enough material on the rims to drill without losing too much strength. You will also have be willing to drill to your rims which will lose value of those rims on most peoples mind.

When your cover is in contact to your tire always monitor if the plastic starts to wear the rubber in cornering. I once had covers little bit over the rim agains the tire and after 4 months there were about 6 mm deep grooves on the tires.

I havent never lost a smooth hubcap when using those uv resistant high quality zipties in Finland. First I drilled two holes and went behind the poles and now I use the Ziptie Plugs. I have used zipties in wheels for 2 years but here we have to change them after half a year when we change winter or summer tires under the car.

[metroschultz]

Originally Posted by mwebb

just use bolts
drill and tap

do not drill through the plastic , punch through using the holes drilled through the wheel as a guide , then use a tapered punch , twisting by hand to expand the holes enough to fit the bolts .

4 bolts is fine up to 70 mph , i never go faster so i dunno if 4 bolts is good enough at 71 mph or above

MWebb,
What kind of plastic is that?
And,
Where did you get it?
I have been trying to come up with a solution that will satisfy my need for wheel covers and my wife's need for aesthetics.
Thanx.

NVM, I found the original post with info.

[morphector]

Originally Posted by graydonengineering

Since I have moved to AZ, I have lost all faith is zip ties. They dry out and degrade in just moths here. The same thing used to happen in Oregon only it tool YEARS rather than months lol. I no longer use them unless they are the stainless steel kind (no joke, they come in ss).

Just buy some quality zip ties. Just go to any business electrical store and buy some thomas&betts zipties. Up until recently I was working for a telephone company, some zip ties were more than 30 years old in plain sun and they were still strong, they weren't as shiny as new one but they were still really strong. These will probably cost you more than 25c each. You wouldn't believe what I've done with these that's still holding 4-5 years later.

[mwebb]

for a while i did not see them on the new cars , today i see them on a new VW Toureg ... 17" clear so i guess VW is shipping them again .

Originally Posted by metroschultz

MWebb,
What kind of plastic is that?
And,
Where did you get it?
I have been trying to come up with a solution that will satisfy my need for wheel covers and my wife's need for aesthetics.
Thanx.

NVM, I found the original post with info.

[Floordford]

Drilling into the rim isnt an option. And I dont plan on making the cover big enough to touch the tire. I just want to have it go to the lip of the rim. Like where wheel weights attach. But not above that. http://www.themustangsource.com/time...llittWheel.jpg
So that when im going 70mph the lip of the rim will help prevent it getting thrown off.

edit: Although, I could get those Kleen Wheels brake dust shields and drill into those. Then I wouldn't have to take the covers off to clean the wheels so much. http://www.allfordmustangs.com/revie...en-wheels.html

[G2TDI]

Originally Posted by Vekke

You can make your own with jigsaw but the circle is very difficult to get "round" and looking nice. Material is 3mm thick tinted polykarbonate. Is it 1/8"?

Also if you need it to "bubble" to any degree it will not be easy to calculate the EXACT diameter needed, right?

[G2TDI]

There is also commercially available "mud covers" from a number of different companies

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...lic-13256.html

[ausias]

Lexan of course. I used a cheap Lexan layer wich is used in greenhouse in a dual layer structure (coroplast i think) with UV protection in the external layer and nylon zipties.
In my Renault Kangoo van I was possible of doing a good aproach thanks to the U-groove of 3 to 6 mm on the 14" rims, so it fited like a Flexcap (of Tuneko) but I think white smooth hubcaps with ziptiesplugs will be better looking.
This vehicle does 90.000 km/year (56.000 mi/year) and fuel consumtion average of 5.7 L/100 km (42.3 us mpg) with 600 kg of load (1700 kg of total weight) and highway speeds.
I started the long term test and I'm hoping 0.11 to 0.28 L/100km less (if all the references I read are correct), It will refill full tanks 7 to 9 times a month on average. I'm waiting.
I started also a test on a Iveco Daily (7 meters long and 3500 kg total weight with load) and Volkswagen LT 35 wich are driven 150.000 km/year but large van rims of 15" and 16" are difficult to fit because of the rims and good looking prototype will need to adjust new number of holes and fixation to rim holes number. (You will see the pictures ) . Expected decrease on the Iveco f.c. of 10.7 L/100km (@105 km/h cruise control) is 0.21 to 0.5 L/100km less.
I don't have any obdii data logging interface to use with Renault and Iveco, maybe i could test better the VW ones, and also i will test in a car to get some short mileage results.

The two large vans are constantly working and i have limited availability on doing R+D, new flat hubcaps with a good looking number of holes are in project.
Total cost of the 8 hubcaps and zipties are 25€ and a lot of hours of work on R+D.
The wheel trims I did are all bubbled thanks to flexibility because bold hubcap or centre are several centimeters out. Flexibility of dual layer is very limited because minimum radius are around meters, It wasn't easy to obtain 16" rim needed curvature.