Serving Tray Racing Disk ...

[alohaspirit]

hah!


but yeah, 5 min job

green cover, white E

[Christ]

Ok, now use the actual green plate, put the white E on it, and then put it in place of the wheel cover. That will show it for sure!

[alohaspirit]

i can do this but im afraid to free-hand the E

[Christ]

working on it... Gimp's taking forever.

[Christ]

My GIMP to you.

I didn't change the opacity of the disks to show the wheels, though, because that would have just taken forever to render.

Oh, and you wouldn't have noticed if I didn't say anything.

[cfg83]

Christ and alohaspirit -

Now that the bicycle-DIY wheel covers are no longer très chique, I have no problem Eco-E-ing them. Time to got get some green paint.

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

Hello -

Quick update. All four black covers are installed and working like a charm. I got the ultimate compliment a week ago. A 10 year-old kid on a skateboard told me they were cool. Therefore by extenstion I am also "" . In addition, I can tell that they attract attention on the roads because I see other drivers looking down at my tires.

There is one thing I notice. It's hard to describe, but the circular edge doesn't actually touch the side of the wheel. It is being held up by the circular hole that used to be occupied by the centercap. When it's really quiet outside, I can hear the plastic tapping against the wheel. Whenever I inspect the covers they are solid. But I still have a plan for this too. I have some black door impact trim that I am going to cut into little 1/2" bits. I will install them at 3 points along the edge of the cover (because 3 points will always be "level" against the wheel). This should reduce and/or cancel the flexing.

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

Hello -

This is being posted for this thread :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...cap-13471.html

Here is the anatomy of my overkill but solid as a pet-rock connection system :



1 - A square piece of craft sponge to keep the bolt snug. This keeps it from rattling around when I am installing the cover. The cylinder shape is from being squished up against the real lug nut. Pipe insulation is perfect in place of craft insulation.

2 - Bolt with nut screwed all the way on. This was a quick way to shorten the bolt by the width of the nut.

3 - A washer to cover the ...

4 - Lock washer to help make things snug followed by ...

5 - Another washer to cover up the lock washer. Therefore, 3+4+5 form a washer+lock washer+washer sandwich that protects the ...

6 - Plastic lug nut that is the base for the attachement system. Notice that the hole is small. I did this to preserve as much of the plastic as possible. I wanted to do this because every milligram of plastic that is preserved contributes to the robustness of the solution. That hole is 0.15" in diameter. The bolt is the same, so I have to screw it on to get it to go through.

7 - A plumbing washer that is conical in shape on the side that touches the plastic lug nut.

8 - A line representing the plastic wheel cover.

9 - A washer with a rubberized backing. In this way 7+8+9 are all "plastic on plastic" with a metal bolt going through. My thinking is that this helps to protect the (brittle plastic) wheel cover from damage by isolating it from metal parts.

10 - Another lock washer to help keep the ...

11 - Retaining nut. When I screw on the nut, even though there is nothing to keep the bolt from spinning, there is enough friction in the setup to allow the bolt to screw on quite well. I just screw it hand-tight. I have not lost a single nut (yet).

Am I the son of a NASA engineer or what, ?

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

Hello -

Here is my first system failure, a cracked disk on the front passenger wheel after about 4 months and 6000 miles :



This was predictable to me because :

1 - It's that "brittle" polystyrene plastic.

2 - It's on a mold-seam, which I already worried would crack when I was drilling holes.

3 - The question mark is to show a little piece of door-edge-guard molding I put on the wheel to make it touch the wheel. There were originally 3, but two of them flew off. It is plausible that this plastic edge piece pushed on the side of the wheel cover and contributed to the failure.

The good news is I already had two more covers prepped and ready as backups. The new disk is already installed. In materials the loss is $2.50. In labor the loss is much greater, but still worth it to me because this is "hobby labor".

Another good thing is that it didn't have a catastrophic failure. It cracked, I saw it, and I could fix it at my liesure. I even drove on the freeway with the crack, so I know it was not in immediate danger of flying off.

I am considering sending an e-mail to the company that makes the dish and asking if they would be willing to make a batch using tougher plastic. Alternatively I could look for a restaurant supply shop and see what kind of pizza pans they offer.

CarloSW2

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by cfg83

I am considering sending an e-mail to the company that makes the dish and asking if they would be willing to make a batch using tougher plastic. Alternatively I could look for a restaurant supply shop and see what kind of pizza pans they offer.

CarloSW2

Unless yer planning on ordering like 100,000 units, I don't think they'll do it fer a low cost. Yer better off making yer own DIY vacuum mold form and using a shop vac to make yer own set. The key will be finding some decent/suitable scrap stock locally that would be free or low cost fer you to make them out of.