Smooth wheel covers for the Prius

[Daox]

I will do that. I'll call up the local welding supply place and see what they suggest today.

I also wanted to add a shot of the washer grinding that needed to be done. Apparently the wheel comes very close to the inner edge of the trim ring, so they needed to be cut back.

[NeilBlanchard]

I think 'T' nuts would work well? Would flat bars in place of the inside washers be made from something in the hardware store?

[Daox]

T nuts would be another good choice. I chose the rivet nuts because they're aluminum and if I wanted to bond the two metals together I figured aluminum to aluminum would be easier than steel to aluminum. They also stuck up a bit further which gives you a bit more room to play with fastener length.

[kir_kenix]

Really nice! I mocked up some smoothies for my S10, and said to myself they would look really nice with no bolt holes. You did a good job executing. I will probably be lazy and still drill a hole in mine, but next time I'm in the garage I'll see how feasable your set up would be. Thanks for the write up.

[NorthCoastEscort]

My question is why can we not buy a cheap set of plastic smooth hub caps? They sell and make hub caps all day long and I have yet to find a smooth one.

[MetroMPG]

Good question, that.

[DonR]

There is a product called "Alumaloy" which lets you braze aluminum parts together. Used it once to make a questionable plenum for a kart. It held up for quite a while.

I swear I saw a set of wheels on a Prius in the parking lot here at work where there was a trim ring that would rotate to block off airflow through the wheel. Anyone ever seen them?

Don

[Daox]

Well, I just got back from the welding supply store and came back with another glue. The stuff is called Lab Metal and he said that it is stronger than JB weld and that it would probably work good for this application. Seeing as I have never actually brazed anything before and this would be my first shot at it, I'm going to try the super glue first.

I am not looking forward to chipping off all that JB weld though!

[TomO]

Very nice looking!
How about calling it the "Pizzrius" now, lol?

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Daox

....The pizza pans cost a whopping $3.50 each or something like that. If I loose one (and don't notice it) its not the end of the world.....

If your traveling 65 mph down the Interstate and one comes off from a big bump in the road, it's going to have quite a bit of kinetic energy.

If it hit someone's car or hurts someone along side the road changing their flat tire, that might make for a bad day. That disk would be going almost 100 feet per second.

One can easily make sure they stay on with a slight modification.

Welding on fasteners without distorting the thin disk could be tricky. I have welded thin sheet metal before and ended up distorting door panels. It's easy to do.

If you heat up the whole pan in an oven to 500 degrees first, then weld the stand off's you'll have a much better chance not warping the disk. But that seems to be a lot more work than simply adding a flush mounted fastener from the outside.

Jim.