Smooth Wheel Covers Well kinda convex

[cycleguy]

Nice job! I did the same thing with fiberglass on my stock Metro hub caps. It has worked great since August of this year with no problems. I painted mine red so that people are drawn to look at my super sweet car. I get a lot of thumbs up and/or confused looks on the highway (it could be my yellow skirts on the back, though).

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...aps-14322.html

[Vekke]

Here is how I did my 22.5" FleXcap front prototypes:

TUNEKO - Windows Live

First I had a standard 22.5" front rim. I took some measurements and draw a 3D model what I wanted the hubcaps to look like. Attaching idea was the same as in rear wheel version. After this I printed a Y0 section in 1:1 to paper.

Now the problem was how to manufacture easiest way that round elliptic shape. First idea was to use lathe and wood but I dont have that machine on home. Next idea was that I will use clay, because it is cheap and easy tool. However there was one problem that the size of that hubcap was so big that it would not fit to normal potterswheel.

Then the idea came that I can leave the part on table and rotate the shape. I cutted the Y0 section to 16mm thick wood. I also cutted round wood to match the heigth of the part. For base I had a plastic sheet where I drow a round circle of the current rear hubcap model. Marked the centerpoint and drilled a small hole there. After this I put the round wood over the center hole and drilled a skrew to it under the plastic. After this I rotated the wood under the table with powerdrill. Ot the top side I marked the center of the round wood by marker pen. Now I could attach the Y0 wood section to center of that Z-axis.

After this I just started to put some cly over the plastic and every time there were too much clay the woodpiece sweeped the exessive material out. After about 30 minutes I had got into this phase:

After this I just filled the centerhole and applied 5 layers of 300g twill glassfiber and polyester resin. I dont have to apply release agent because glasfiber dont attach to plastic. After a two hours of curing the glasfiber part was ready for cooling holes and cutting of the outer edges. Now when I draw the outer edged to the plastic they were copied to that glasfiber part also so it was easy to cut the outer edge. Cooling holes with holedrill and the prototype was ready for assembly tests.

Shape worked well but the cooling holes need more testing with plastic prototypes. My glasfiber part became too stiff compared to plastic. I could have taken other part of that clay tool with little restauring but I was only testing the basic shape. The used caly can be quite soft but not too soft. The tool broke up where the clay was most softest due to water etc...

Same method can be applied to all elliptic parts .

After this I will take a glasfiber mold out of that part for vacuumforming. Costs for vacuumforming tool are under 50 € in this case because the glasfiber materials are free for me. Oherwise the cost would be something like this:

Clay 16€
Polyester resin 1 liter + hardener 12€
Normal glasfiber mat 3 layer about 15€ (if 5x 300g twill about 50€)
paint brush and gloves etc 3€
plastic sheet about 10€

Materials prices depend on where you buy them and how much...

So total cost about 55€ (90€) without the tools being used . If you want that same tool to be CNC milled to wood it would cost about 1000€.

[JRP3]

Originally Posted by Mrtony5

It really doesn't seem that brittle the reason I didn't use fiberglass cloth is cause I didn't want to put layer and layer on them(which would add cost) Plus I would think that T-shirt is more tightly woven so it should be pretty strong (for one layer) but a rock will crack fiberglass cloth also. Right ?

A single layer of fiberglass cloth would have been enough and much stronger than a cotton T shirt. That said your setup should probably last fairly well unless it takes direct hits.

[cfg83]

Vekke -

Ingenious exection. Are you going to manufacture your wheel covers in different sizes?

CarloSW2

[Vekke]

First only the truck sizes but automotive hubcap series will follow. All depens on how these will start to sell which dictates do I have enough money to invest to moulds. Hopefully before next summer...

At the moment bank account is quite empty .

[cfg83]

Vekke -

Ok, I'm crossing my fingers for an eco-trucker fashion trend. When you expand your empire I think Piwoslaw will want to talk to you!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...iscs-7381.html

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

CarloSW2

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by cfg83

When you expand your empire I think Piwoslaw will want to talk to you!

I've been nagging him about that for quite a while! I'm having trouble typing since I'm holding my thumbs for Vekke's truck caps to be a success, knowing that smaller sizes will be next. Good luck Vekke!!

[alohaspirit]

Originally Posted by Rokeby

You could make "stealth" aero-covers by masking off the original wheel cover
design and painting in the original pattern with silver paint.

I bet hardly anyone would notice the aero-mod.

I thought the same thing

(as I believe Metro did something something)


Could you have sanded the grainyness down a little?

Also just came to mind:
What if you sprayed adhesive on the hubcap first
then it would lay flatter (not poofed) and you might not need zip ties



Great job on this!

[Geo Metropolis]

Way to go, Those look smooth enough and you know hubcaps will mount right and simply pop off. I made flat discs out of ABS and zip tied them to the spokes of the rim. The zip ties keep failing. Also the annoyingness of removing them prompted me to cutout access for valve stems which I would prefer to not have done. I should have figured out a way to mount them to actual hubcaps. Anyway, nicely done, these are really cool

[Craig]

I have a set of OEM '93 Saturn wheel covers that I'm going to try this trick on for the Saturn TDI; the nice thing about them is that they secure over the OEM lug nuts, so I would just need the four holes to access them for installing/removing. They are also fairly flat, so most of the cloth would have some backing for additional strength.