How often do you see ARE wheels for sale but the center caps are missing? Well, I bought a set for my green car (16" with brand new tires for $120 :banana:) but the center caps were missing.
Back when I first got this car, I was trying to think of OE or true-to-the-era wheels that would look good on this car without looking too sporty or being too expensive and Shawn and Zach suggested I seek out a set of wheels like this. They couldn't have been more right. I've been looking ever since and finally found these and picked them up yesterday.
They only had two center caps though and I'm not about to use the ones that are on After so I am trying to make my own. I suppose there are a bunch of things (paint can or tire shine cap for example) that would work but I used a Burger King cup. The cup fits tighter than the ARE caps. I also used that wide chrome rocker panel tape you get at the chain auto parts stores for the center. I sanded the cup, then used that Duplicolor adhesion promoter spray, then used Duplicolor black bumper paint. Once I get the wheels finished and painted, I'll put them on and see how it goes. The paint could flake off in the first five miles then I would have to find a black spray can cap that fits right or a black cup. Anyway, here is a pic for now:
wouldnt the lincoln lsc caps fit those?
That's amazing.
I assume the plastic had a clean, shiny finish on it? How did you go about sanding it? What grit did you finish with?
You gotta get some close-up shots of that.
Yes, clean and shiny. Oops, I forgot to sand these first. I used that "adhesion promoter" stuff then bumper black because I assume it has a little flex agent in it. Then I cut out circles from the chrome rocker panel tape and used that for the centers.
I've been driving with them for only one week so far. Let's see how they survive winter.
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9397/homemadecentercapim9.th.jpg) (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=homemadecentercapim9.jpg)
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1549/homemadecentercap2fg6.th.jpg) (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=homemadecentercap2fg6.jpg)
Mother neccessity.It never ceases to amaze me what we come up with when we want something bad enough.Great work !!! I love that stuff.
Looks great! Let's get a shot of the whole car with the new wheels and caps! :grinno:
Thank you.
Ask and you shall receive:
Joking aside, it's not ready for pictures here yet.
I am really sticking to the budget route with this car. I really had to think about spending $60 for a new passenger window motor. My goal is to see how much I can do with spending as little money as possible to make it look as good as possible using parts I already have, paint I already have, and time I don't have.
i know how you feel. ive been on that plan since i bought my car 2 years and 4 months ago(yeah i could tell you the day too!) and so far i only have a stereo, ponies, console, hood and my factory mustang headers and h-pipe with flows that i dont have one yet.
BK FTW. Nice mod there, ingeuity at it's finest.
Thanks everyone. So far, I've been through several rainy days, been over the typical set of bumps and locked the tires avoiding Bambi's dumb ass and the caps still look good and don't seem to have moved.
F-ck it, here it is in December:
(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9797/12dec063rn1.th.jpg) (http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=12dec063rn1.jpg)
that looks nice Karl.
You need to re-paint those pilliars though. That alone made a world of difference on my '86. Unless you already did that. Just realized the picture is from December...
Thanks.
Yeah, I know. I need to repaint a lot of sh, er stuff on this car. One of the reasons I didn't want to post a picture yet.
Here is an up-close of a center cap:
(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/3425/centercapdec06sz7.th.jpg) (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=centercapdec06sz7.jpg)
So far, the caps still look good. Salt, ice, salt, rain, salt, snow, salt, dirt, and they are still holding up.
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, Karl! Nice work. I didn't realize how pretty the Sage color was. I've got a similar set of wheels I bought a while ago and of course, no center caps. I'll probably try your method for 'em but I'm not sure that the holes are the same size, as the wheels I have are identical to those found on a McLaren Capri and they're not ARE's.
Here's an awful cell phone picture close-up of the center of the wheel: (https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/photos/photo18/05/57/667f543f14b2.jpeg?_rh=cf1l8m2jcpns5uhpfruyxiqix)
That picture is nuts, you should submit it for the calender or something. It looks like it was meant for a sales ad.