Simple Honda VX Alloy Wheel Covers (drilled acorn wheel nuts as attachment points)
 

I'd posted this inside another thread, but realized the information probably deserves its own thread.

Got these done a few weeks ago, and they have worked out quite well.

Used a melamine serving tray from KMart (fairly light weight compared to pizza pans) ($4.99 ea):
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH.../P82201211.JPG

Drilled out the acorn nuts and epoxied in some washers plus smaller nuts inside:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TI...0/P9060166.JPG

They're actually all centered... just looks off:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TI...0/P9060167.JPG

Epoxy is setting now... using bolts & nuts to hold the nuts inside straight:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TI...0/P9060171.JPG

Lug nuts ready to go back on the car:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TI...0/P9060176.JPG

And now back on the car:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH...0/P8220120.JPG

Drilled 4 matching holes into the serving tray:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TI...0/P9060173.JPG

The design of the bottom of the tray made it exceptionally easy to mark 4 evenly spaced lines and the center point. Measuring 50mm (5cm) out from the center to get to the same spacing as the 4x100 lug nuts was a snap. All the holes have lined up with all the lug nuts perfectly twice so far (left and right covers).

Hot-glued washers and spacers to the wheel side of the tray so they don't keep falling off during the mounting (it ain't purty, but it works):
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH...0/P8220121.JPG

Initially, the tray was a little big and rested on the edge of the rim:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH...0/P6260090.JPG

I didn't like that, so I sanded the edges of the tray down until it fit exactly inside the edge of the rim:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH...0/P6260097.JPG

Final look is pretty decent; plan to also sand down the ridges so the whole 'bottom' / outside of the tray is smooth, and then will likely paint them. Also plan to smooth the edges of the washers so they don't present such a sharp edge:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_e1PWzsTgbJw/TH...0/P8220123.JPG

For these covers, I prefer to remove the clip-on weights on the outside of the wheel and have the tire shop re-balance with the stick-ons (or clip-ons on the inside only) so that I don't need to cut notches into the covers just for the weights. Since it's a relatively quick 4 phillips screw on / off process, and since the tires are holding air really well, I'm not too worried about having an opening for the air valve.

I dont think those could fit any better!

so the screws go into the tops of the lug nuts?

Very very nice.

Why not just drill and tap the lug nut holes?

regards
Mech

NachtRitter -

Great work! I've seen a lot of 14" plates, but that was always too small for my 15" wheels.

CarloSW2

Right; with the spacers, the bolts / screws snug up against the lug nuts. Stays nice & snug, no wobble, no noise.

That was my original plan actually. However, once I drilled the hole into the top of the lug nut, I found out there really isn't much metal there to tap... Maybe a 32nd of an inch. That's when I came up with the idea of inserting a washer plus a nut and using epoxy to hold them in... I put anti-seize on the threads of the lug nut and on the bolt for the smaller nut, threaded the nut over the bolt so that it would stay true, "poured" the epoxy in, and then let it sit for ~12 hours. The bolts unthreaded fine, and no epoxy stuck to the lug nuts either.

I was worried the epoxy wouldn't hold strong enough, but I can actually tighten the bolts down pretty well.

Good work!

I shall copy this.

Good DIY! Thanks for posting.

Carlos -

I have to thank you for the inspiration... Your serving tray thread (http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...isk-11838.html) is what gave me the idea of attaching to the lug nuts... since I didn't have any nut caps handy, I improvised. :thumbup:

NachtRitter .. excellent way to mount them on the VX rims .. I was looking at the idea many times but didn't want to drill into the rims. This solves the issues.
Are you going to do any A-B-A tests, or give educated guesses on mpg gains?
Again awesome solution.