47-55.1 Holding Hubcaps

[mechanixman]

Hey Folks
How do you fasten your hubcaps to your wheels? Is it worth buying them or just making them youself? do you tack weld them to the wheels? or drill and screw/bolt them in?

Pic for attentiton.

Thanks,

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by mechanixman

do you tack weld them to the wheels?

well that escalated quickly.


I recently put stock clip caps on a rally wheel by trimming the clip cap a little and welding a cheap rally cap to it. worked great.






for your case, you have clip caps and nub wheels. you might be able to order clips to drill and screw to the center portion of the wheel and that will let the clip caps fit. do a search on ebay for VW hubcap clips, sometimes you can get 20 for under 15 bucks. then you measure, mark, spin the wheel with a marker so its a true circle, drill and attach.

also, there is a guy who modifies caps and wheels, may not be cheap but his website is thewheelsmith.net

[mr48chev]

It would be simpler to buy a set of the correct wheels with the clips on them.



Then you wouldn't have those nubs sticking out around the hubcap and holding it off the wheel.

[Jesse Z]

Originally Posted by mechanixman

How do you fasten your hubcaps to your wheels? do you tack weld them to the wheels?

Of course not, that would be ridiculous.

For safety sake hubcaps must be fully welded to the wheel around their entire circumference.

[nvrdone]

just use duct tape. that should hold them on for the first block ….

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

It would be simpler to buy a set of the correct wheels with the clips on them.

Then you wouldn't have those nubs sticking out around the hubcap and holding it off the wheel.

i dont think there are a lot of options for wide 8 lug wheels that take clips. most clip 8 lugs are widowmakers and 5 inches wide.

but if thats what you want, wheelsmith can make them too, the wheels and the caps. keep in mind he wanted $160 ea for those gmc hubcaps to fit rally centers, probably totally worth it but I did all 4 myself for $150.

I would probably get a flatter nub hubcap and weld the clip hubcap to it after trimming the back flat. it would have a shoulder you could paint the wheel color and I bet no one would notice ever.

[mr48chev]

My bad there, I didn't even count the lugs. Yup that is a big problem. When you get old your eyes don't always tell you the whole story.

What about taking a painted 8 lug hubcap and trimming the center out and using it as an adapter for the smaller cap? Paint it to match the wheel and it shouldn't show that much.

[71blksuper4x4]

I think there are aftermarket clips for Volkswagens? Maybe that should work.

[1project2many]

I bought aftermarket clips for a Chevy truck thank you very much. They may have been designed for a VW, but they were sold for the truck so that's what I'm going with.

And after they were purchased, I have never used them. Instead I found stainless baby moon caps that fit nub wheels.

So i have this bag of clips taking up valuable shelf space...