Clear Wheel Covers

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Say what - I joined the fun!

I bought a

We need to carefully pull that off the sheet.
Then drape.us/a/img39/386/nwhz.JPG[/IMG]
Seen in the light of day:

sweet!!!!!!!
Certainly something to be said for wheel covers!!!

[brucey]

That looks FANTASTIC! Exactly what I was going for.

[RedDevil]

Mind you; I used the protective foil, not the Lexan itself.
I even picked the size of the sheet carefully so that I could make 4 covers out of the foil

The Lexan is not wasted though. I will use it to block the grilles, protect the fog lights and if enough remains smooth out the cavity under the indicators.

The wheels look best at a distance. Close by it is obvious that they are covered, and as it is just not 100% perfectly smooth it looks cheap. But then it WAS cheap - the Lexan was just 10 €, and the foil would otherwise have been thrown away.

I was worried about water getting trapped between the cap and the foil;, but have driven through some rain and puddles and none of that went in.

The foil folds over the edges of the hub cap.
You need to make sure that the cap still snaps in place toghtly, otherwise you have to grind it down a bit to make room for the foil.
Luckily I did not need to; they still snap into position firmly.

Check your tire pressure before you put them on - they need to come off now. Did not want to make a hole in the foil, afraid that will make it rip.

[Xist]

Looks nice! I tried using marine wrap on my hubcaps, but since they are the bolt-through type, that was doomed.

Now I have over a hundred square feet of the stuff...

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Mind you; I used the protective foil ... The foil folds over the edges of the hub cap ... afraid that will make it rip.

I have to call FAIL on my covers, sadly.
The flexibility and softness of the foil turned out to be its weak points. It wore through at the edge, so I had to tear them off.
It really needs something to protect it from being chewed to bits at the rim edge.

The caps were near impossible to remove without grabbing the spokes, so at least one hole in the cover would have been handy.

As for efficiency; had my car serviced and two severe storms on the last tank so nothing to show, just a bad tank FE wise.

OK, back to the drawing board.

[brucey]

OK, So I'm like a year late.

But, here is the idea and first proof of concept cover.

Was awful time consuming to make actually. I would say about 2 hours for the one cover. I haven't removed the backing on the rear lexan yet as I just want to see if it will work as a proof of concept before I do a complete version. Will be driving around for a few days to make sure it's not going to cause issues, then will probably re-do and touch up a couple things and make a set for all 4 wheels. I was thinking too: This should be possible to do by drilling directly into the wheel face and tapping it, but would be a permanent change. It would certainly be easier to line everything up then, also plan to change out the bolts with possibly a allen head instead of the 10mm bolt but thats minor stuff.

[UltArc]

Wish my Mustang rims were totally flat. And they look too good for pizza pans.

[backpacker3]

That looks nice! I'm going to try the same thing.

[kafer65]

drawing inspiration I did my clear set without too much fuss. Splashing around in the rain gets mine dull on the back side and they wore the finish in a few places. no added vibrations or problems other than that.

[brucey]

Got any pictures? I haven't had any problems the past few days,and plan to make a few slight revisions here and there the next day I have off.