Plastics moon discs
 

I know I'm not the only one wondering why nobody makes moon discs out of plastic. Compared to metal caps, plastic moonies would be lighter and cheaper, but I haven't found any. So, I looked for hubcap producers in my area and wrote to the two largest ones. I asked whether it'd be possible to make smooth hubcaps, how much would it cost, how would the price come down if I bought more than one set, what size would the minimum batch be, etc. Neither wrote back :(
If I did get an answer, then buying a few sets may not hurt too much, then giving them to friends/family (my Wife's nephew is sort of into tuning his ride), maybe as presents.

It is an interesting idea. In fact, it might be relatively easy to epoxy some coroplast discs onto a modified set of old wheel covers. That would make the attachment problem easier.

here's a couple of thoughts

frisbees
plastic plant pot trays
paint bucket lids

or find or make a suitable shape and vacuum form it... vacuum forming is what's used to produce these plastic blister packages. but the technique is also used is scale modeling to make things like aircraft canopees etc. so you might look for information in these circles

you could make a transparent cover for your bling bling rims, use non transparent plastic sheet, or use transparent sheet and paint it from the back! very smooth and durable finish that way

Piwoslaw -

One thing you could do is find the smoothest hubcap out there and fill in the holes. This is what MetroMPG did. Here is a nice example of an almost moon-disk :

Honda Civic Hubcaps, Honda Civic Wheel Covers and hub caps - Hubcaps.com
Attachment 2870

CarloSW2

Lots of '80s car had flat or nearly flat hubcaps. There ya go.

Frank -

Yup.

CarloSW2

Thanks fór the comments, but I see you missed my point. I don't have anything against making my own moonies, and that's what I'll end up doing. I started this thread to talk about some company producing flatcaps out of plastic, or not producing is closer to home. Would there be enough customers to make it worth while to produce plastic moon discs? How much cheaper would they be compared to steel ones, and would that win over the pseudo-racing crowd?
Plus, if I'd like to inflict mooncaps on someone as a gift, they should at least look nice (I know, I know: you guys have some nice ones on your cars, but I'm not that talented).

I don't think there would be enough customers.

There probably aren't enough ecomodders, especially when you factor in how many have alloy wheels, and how many make their own with pizza pans instead. The pseudo-racing crowd isn't gonna buy mooncaps unless they are featured in a Fast and the Furious movie

Although, I could see those blue caps on that aeromodded Prius being successfully marketed to hybrid owners. Plus they aren't retro like regular mooncaps, so they actually match the styling of new cars.

How about using kids round plastic saucers that are used for sledding? Cost just a few bucks around here.

It costs several hundred dollars to make a casting die.

moorecomp -

I was noticing those a few months ago. I think they have pretty big diameters, usually greater than 15" (my wheel size).

CarloSW2

The plastic saucers are a good idea. You could always trim them down to your rim diameter.

Better than pizza pans, actually, because as Phil has pointed out before, the slightly "domed" wheel cover is apparently the ideal aero shape.

MetroMPG -

Ha ha, you could do a group buy for 3 cars with a material UMC of ~$5.50 a disk :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1236581299

(needs some paint)

CarloSW2

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Piwoslaw -

Maybe DIY vacuum forming is an option for you :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ming-7404.html

CarloSW2

I'm another that is looking for plastic "moon" hubcaps. I bought 16" stainless steel push-on hubcaps last year and just recently lost one. Because they are prone to loosening and flying off.

Heck, I even found the same "moon" wheel cover (but in 15") by the side of the road. So I know this is a common problem. It's not just me.

I have a set of cheap 15" plastic wheel covers I bought year ago. These have a thick metal wire that, in conjunction with plastic fingers, provide the friction to keep them in place. Running them 4-5 months each year for 5+ years, I have never lost a one. They stick well and are lightweight so there is less force pulling them off.

I too have to think it's just a matter of time before these are commercially made. Why not make them and make outrageous claims about 5-10% greater fuel economy?

With all the gimmicks that are out there ... why not make these ... something that will actually work? (albeit subtley)

plastic Moonies
 

I have no business sense whatsoever,however from back-tracking on the EV-1 I ran across some articles which suggest that production numbers below 40,000-50,000 units a year are economically un-profitable i.e. of no interest to manufacturers unless it's some high-end niche market.

I like the idea of plastic sleds. As winter ends they are probably on clearance for dirt cheap too. That might be an option if my coroplast discs ever come apart. Right now I have coroplast discs taped to my trim rings and then painted over. I could get a set of junkyard trim rings (so I don't screw up my originals) and bolt the appropriately cut plastic sleds to them with small screws and nuts.

As far as mass production, probably just not the market for them. Back when hubcaps were the norm, you still hardly saw any moon discs as it was. Now most cars seem to have alloy wheels so any market would be even smaller.

I thought about this s'more. Common sense tells me if 'they' can make and sell stainless steel covers, sell them and make money ... 'they' can do the same with ABS plastic.

Of course "they" could make some, but the majority of folks who want moon discs are hot-rodder types who don't want plastic discs -- hot rodders want real aluminum or stainless discs.

If someone wants looks, then he will get metal moonies, but if someone wants performance, then something light is better. Plastic discs don't have to look that bad either. Paint them metallic silver and the market will be open for "budget" hot-rodders (and ecomodders ;) ).

Count me in as another one who wants plastic moon discs or darn close. Those Honda hubcaps mentioned are nice.. except the flattest ones they have on that linked page are only 13" and I'm 15"... I would appreciate links to any almost-relatively flat plastic hubcaps in appropriate sizes.

While I am interested in stainless steel moons for the aesthetics, I sometimes park in areas where metal theft is a problem, so I want to avoid having them stolen.

With a new car, I don't want to futz with something ugly or poorly handmade looking. Also, people are suggesting various plastic things to make them out of , but don't you also have to consider the relatively high heat of a wheel (mostly from braking) and the impact on the hubcap... ? I think some of these suggested plastics (such as the kids snow disc sled, frisbees, etc.) may have too low of a melting/durability temperature.

Thanks

Pizza pans are your best bet.

I don't have to brake all that much usually. It's better to not over accelerate in the first place from an efficiency perspective.

Race car guy (and wannabees) will definitely want more air on their brakes though.

My point wasn't that the brakes/wheels need air to cool down, rather that certain types of plastic will easily melt at even relatively low sustained temperatures from friction from movement and the brakes, etc.

as an aside..

Just went out running errands all day... and DOH! forgot to stop to look at pizza pans... it's so easy to forget what you ran into the kmart or walmart to see if you didn't write it down... I knew I went there for _something!_

I tinker with solar collectors and have $0.02 to add
 

if you cut out circles of plexiglass on a tablesaw that are the same size as your rims, you can bake them to shape in your oven at 250. Just find something that has the right curve. round slow-cooker lids work well if you remove the handle.:D keep an eye on them so they don't melt too far.......If you have a lathe you can make a wood/metal form......

how do some of you ecomodders fasten your mooncaps to your rims? nt
 

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zip ties man, haha its the best idea ever... cheap, easy to remove, easy to put on... just drill some holes in the moons and run the zip ties through, double or triple them up for length... :D

RandomFact314 -

If I were to do that, I would put a grommet in the metal hole to mitigate the metal on plastic scraping (but that's just paranoid me).

I've got these plastic ones with zipties (I doubled-up just like you suggested) :

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

As you can see, it's pretty utilitarian. I may do what Christ mentioned, and paint them blackout (Mad Max) style, or find some black plastic sheets. This would hide the holes and make it so I don't have to clean the dust off. My hands get coal-black from brake dust whenever I put them on/take them off, and then I have to clean the plastic. Hiding the details would make them more blunt and "stealthy" at the same time.

CarloSW2

I used rivets and construction adhesive to attach my pizza pans to my OEM hubcaps. I can buy new aftermarkets for ~$20 if I ever need to make the car look pretty again.

Tuneko versions will be made from plexiglas and they are meant to be used on aluminium wheels. Thats all I can say at this point, hopefully before next summer I have already something to offer.

What goes for asking offers from companies they dont usually aswer even to other companies if they see that they dont have any products yet...

Pinoslaw did you want 16" capsels and what is the curvature you want? I need more details if you want those to be ready before next summer. I can do the tool with same method as described here and use my loyal subcontractor...

Plexiglas versions can be done quite easily but the attachement you need to thinh at this phase on your own.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...x-14958-2.html

Heh. Figures, I bet what you have in mind is exactly what I recently came up for an idea for.

Oh well, there goes that invention! :D

On connection methods - I just got the Walmart 16" pizza pans (which fit perfectly on the three sets of 15" rims I have in our garage, if you ignore the wheel weights).

My first attempt was to buy some tall acorn nuts (I have a 4x100 bolt pattern) and stick 10-32 nuts inside them, JBwelded in. That was messy (I got some JBweld on the acorn threads) and without roughing up the inside of the acorn, the little nuts broke free pretty easily. Next I tried MIG welding the little nuts on top of the acorns. That was pretty fiddly, as I didn't have any fine wire handy, and the tops of the acorns are pretty easy to burn through. I didn't get good welds on all of them and lost one pizza pan on my maiden voyage, but the other three did 100 miles without any problem.

If my only set were steelies, I would have probably just tapped holes directly in that. However, I have a winter and summer set, and the winter set is a nice alloy Miata wheel. It does have small hubcaps that are a little more than 100mm, so I think I can take those off and tap under them, so they're still presentable if I ever sell them. I'm also assuming the zip-tie method works best on steelies where you've got a lot of small holes at a fixed diameter - the 5-spoke alloy rims seem like they wouldn't keep the cap from moving well if ziptied.

You just need to release the solution before I do and it is yours.

My plan is make it plug and play and it needs to be reversible and fit most of the rim types etc... Sounds like a challenge ;).

Velcro .

Velcro will not hold up to the rigors of all the bumps and shakes as the car travels down the road...as well as the weather elements. :(

I betcha it will: Fit the moonie disk such that its outer edge is snugly just inside the lip of the wheel rim which supports it, and use a strip of velcro around the entire perimeter of the moonie. A very light weight moonie such as the thermoformed idea noted above would impose very little load on the velcro, and be further seated inside the lip.

If you put velcro all over the disc it would not look anymore cool which is one of the most importat factors in using clear hubcaps ;).

Also the hubcaps needs to hold on at top speed whatever the car has. In europe the topspeed is restricstred on most cars to 250 km/h. If the hubcap is not perfectly centerer velcro is little bit loose on side Z-axis and at high speeds that does not end well.

I will do a quick test to at least 180 km/h and see what the results are. If someone wants to go even faster that ok with me but on spec sheet it is told you to what speeds hubcaps will last...

The velcro would not be seen because it would be sandwiched between the moonie disk and the wheel lip. The wheel lip will be what holds the moonie in place, in a snug fit, keeping the moonie centered. The velcro just keeps the moonie from coming out off the wheel. A very light weight moonie would not be much load, unlike one made of heavy metal.

...if the Velcro™ material is used 100% around the wheel-lip circumference, there certainly 'should' be enough "hold" to retain a light-weight plastic moonie.