Pizza pan hubcap project

[brucey]

As far as the "Only leaving the lugnuts exposed"

I also like this idea. It makes the pan a semi permanent mod since you dont have to take it off to check the pressure or take the wheel off.

I have positive results with something similar, simply taping up the wheels:



This seemed to help, but after a few months winds started tearing the tape and I took it all off. If I had to do it again I'd either layer the tape more or find some other way to fill in the gaps. I also had a lot of problems around the valve stem, to the point that I eventually took the tape off around that part of the wheel entirely.

[thatguitarguy]

Experiment 1

Summary conclusion: In order to find out if air will stay attached aft of a wheel with a pizza pan hubcap, one first has to keep the pizza pan hubcap attached.

Just to shorten the discussion, I don't need to hear that I didn't put enough velcro on. My experience is that you can tell if velcro will hold without using very much. If I felt that it had a good grip I would have definitely used more, but the problem is that I only have the edge of the pan in contact with the wheel, and 1/8 inch of contact surface is not enough even if I had covered the entire edge with velcro.


I had a feeling it wouldn't work, but it looked good so I took some pix and went for a short drive. Very short. The cap fell off in about a block, and was run over by the rear wheel.

So anyway I have a cap that is ruined as far as an aesthetically pleasing final result, so it will bear the brunt of further experimentation as far as what's needed for attachment. I won't mind drilling holes in it to see what will keep it attached before I mess with the other 3 wheels.

I'm not going to glue it on.

Double sided tape, I think, is going to have the same problem as the velcro in not having enough surface area to be effective.

I don't really want to drill holes in the center area because, though this may work well, I don't think it's as aesthetically pleasing as the pan is hole-free.

I was thinking of the previously mentioned contraptionery in order to have something that could be easily removed without tools, but still stay in place while on the road. I might still experiment with that, but for now it's deciding if I want to zip tie it in place and cut the ties every time I want to check air pressure, or drill a hole and add an extension to the valve, as was suggested, and cut the ties only for rotation or repair.

Thanks for the suggestions, and for following along.

[cfg83]

thatguitarguy -

Rats. At least the $ expenditure was not too high. I did this with sign plastic :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-diy-9158.html

Aesthetically it's not pleasing up close, and there are ziptie bits sticking out, but it is robust. It also gathers brake dust on the back like there is no tomorrow. Last time I took them off for car servicing I left them off because I'm too lazee to clean the back.

For your wheels, it *appears* that they are flat. My problem is that my wheels are not flat. If they were, the solution would be cleaner. As it is, I need the very slight conical shape to make them fit.

CarloSW2

[thatguitarguy]

They are close enough to flat that if I wanted to go concave, I would have plenty of surface area for double stick tape or even velcro, but I wanna go convex.

If you look closely, you'll see that I never cut the ends on the zipties on the painted cardboard grill block. It was never meant to last, but to see if it would be worthwhile making a more permanent block. This I will do. And there is clear packaging tape over the foglights.

If you look even closer you can see a few "aero-dimples" courtesy of the previous owner.

[thatguitarguy]

OK, so this time I decided to see if I could zip tie the pan on. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do this because where I'm tying to is not very adjacent to the edge of the pan and more perpendicular. But I thought if I drilled holes equidistantly, I could hopefully pull the pan into place, center it up, and snug it to the wheel.


I drilled 3 holes and loosely attached the zip ties, then centered the pan, and gradually pulled the ties tight in rotation.


Once they were tight, the pan was fairly snug against the wheel...


But it was easy to flex the pan enough to get my fingers behind it. Air can get behind this and pull it out, but it was definitely more secure than with the velcro.


It looked pretty good, considering the pan had been run over, so I was ready for a drive to see if it would hold.


After 20 miles with speeds up to 60 MPH, the pan went off center a bit, but not enough to feel that the wheel was out of balance. There was a bit of a pull to one side, and a droning, but I think that was more due to the fact that I rotated the tires while I was doing this, and they're not worn into their new positions yet, and the wind was blowing pretty strongly.

This looks like it will work if I use more zip ties, and drill a hole for a valve stem extension. I'll just have to cut a bunch of ties if I get a flat, or when it's time to rotate again, but I like the way this looks, whether or not it gives me any aero advantage.

[tjts1]

Great idea.
I think more zip ties is definitely the answer. 6 or 9 should do it but how are you going to check tire pressure? I'll have to try these on my 15" wheels.

[MetroMPG]

Anyone suggested magnets yet?

Epoxy some rare earth or other strong ones to the pan, and fasten some metal to the corresponding part of the wheel by the method of your choosing.

Free, old hard drives are a good source for powerful magnets.

[luvit]

aluminum pizza pans and alloy wheels may not like magnets.
caulk is like super magnets, but different.

[thatguitarguy]

I don't know what the presence of magnets would do to ABS sensors? If they are strong enough to do the job they're probably heavy enough to throw off wheel balance? And they undoubtedly would collect a bunch of metal dust from the brake rotors.

Why don't you glue your own hubcaps to your own wheels with caulk and tell us how that works?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by luvit

aluminum pizza pans and alloy wheels may not like magnets.

You forgot to keep reading to the next line line that mentioned epoxy mounting plus adding a pad of (ferrous) metal to the rim.

There's no reason they'd put the wheel off balance if you spaced them properly. And being placed near the outside of the rim, I doubt they'd have any effect on ABS.