Experiment: smooth wheel discs tested A-B-A - 4.6% mpg improvement @ 65 mph - Page 15 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

BamZipPow · 12-12-2009, 08:42 PM

I too looked at the clips from the weights...not too sure how well they would hold up by welding/gluing them to the pans.

I picked up one pan to see how well they fit on my alloy wheel...just a tad too big. Looks like I'm gonna have to make mine from coroplast and use the pizza pan as the template and mold. These would have to be glued on to the rim...

Christ · 12-12-2009, 09:06 PM

Hubcaps are usually put on with a metal ring inside a semi-flexible plastic set of "teeth" or "fingers". The metal ring is split so that it's compressible, but holds to it's original form.

If you have access to a NAPA store, you can find some clips that hold plastic tabs for things like a-pillar trim and the like. You could JB weld those tabs on to the pizza pan or the rim and try to make them grip whichever side you didn't epoxy them to.

The pizza pan would be more likely the side to let them grip on, with the holders being epoxied to the wheel itself.

Another option would be to get some lugnuts with caps on them, and just drill small holes in the caps that would accept sheet metal screws. Put the screws through the pizza pan and into the caps of the lug nuts, and you don't have mounting issues anymore. Center everything up before you make the holes, though. Each hole should be 72* apart and I believe for the Toyota they should be 57 mm from center of the pizza pan.

Christ · 12-12-2009, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

I too looked at the clips from the weights...not too sure how well they would hold up by welding/gluing them to the pans.

I picked up one pan to see how well they fit on my alloy wheel...just a tad too big. Looks like I'm gonna have to make mine from coroplast and use the pizza pan as the template and mold. These would have to be glued on to the rim...

If the pizza pan is a bit too big for your wheel, you can bend the lips inward a bit with a pair of pliers to make them fit. Coroplast is cheaper, though, and you still have a good pizza pan for later!

BamZipPow · 12-13-2009, 12:56 AM

Thinking about cutting some card board out and shaping it with the pizza pan. After I git the right size and shape...then I'm gonna coat it with some wood hardener to make it water proof and keep it's shape. Don't have any coroplast big enough to experiment with at the moment.

Then I can glue it to the rim...

Christ · 12-13-2009, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

Thinking about cutting some card board out and shaping it with the pizza pan. After I git the right size and shape...then I'm gonna coat it with some wood hardener to make it water proof and keep it's shape. Don't have any coroplast big enough to experiment with at the moment.

Then I can glue it to the rim...

If you'd rather make them in plastic, chop up some soda bottles, and start a pot with oil in it. Get it up to 250*F with a candy thermometer, and start putting the plastic in, folding constantly until it's all melted together. You can then coat your pizza pan with a light oil film and roll the melted plastic into it to form a disc.

Don't ask.

Weather Spotter · 12-13-2009, 08:58 AM

these are all interesting ideas but I am still a little perplexed on how to attach them to the rims. I do not want to make the wheels go out of balance.

gluing would require breaking it and reapplying after every tire rotation, not fun and not likely to get them centered each time.

Christ · 12-13-2009, 11:51 AM

If you screw them to the lugnuts, they're not attached to the rim at all. They may oscillate at the edges, though. You'd have to look into that.

BamZipPow · 12-13-2009, 07:26 PM

Anytime you add anything to yer wheels...it's gonna go out of balance...sometimes a little...sometimes a lot.

Christ · 12-13-2009, 07:35 PM

That's one of hte reasons the real moon caps have holes in teh middle, I think... the wheel can still be balanced while it's installed.

BamZipPow · 12-14-2009, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christ

You could melt down some old wheel weights to make semi-permanent clips, as well. It takes next to nothing to melt lead, and then you can glue the steel clips onto the cover and pop them in place with a hammer or something. If you bend the inner tab out slightly, they come off much easier, but they're not too awful difficult to take off anyway.

Giving this some more thought...maybe one could use this as a platform to screw/fasten/secure the cover to...

Time to make a run to Discount Tire and see if they will give me 16 old wheel weights...