center cap central!

[stevewix]

ok guys, i stripped my polished aluminum wheels and polished the machined face. they look unbelievable! but... the stock center caps look like hell.



my idea: take a set of aftermarket center caps, (the kind that look like a sheetmetal cup) and mill down 2 pairs to make them shorter. the longer of the two would be just long enough to cover the rears, while the front ones would be almost nothing, close to flush with the face of the wheel. add some chrome acorn lug nuts, we're in business! the rear caps would stick out 2-2. 25" max, and if a guy added some wheel spacers, it would be even less.



with a little innovation, we can come up with something that looks awesome, and work with what we have here. in many cases we dont even need to buy rims to have what we want!



i did not coat the wheels, i could have done them in a ceramic clear but it needed 5 days to cure, i didnt have that long. maybe next time they come off i'll polish them up, but as long as i take care of them they'll stay nice.



clear powdercoat makes the rough cast portion look too silvery, right now its really dark. looks almost like rough magnesium against polished aluminum.





so who makes a center cap like this? i am envisioning one that is slightly convex, or completely flat. the kind that are concave with a flat surface for a logo are out, no me gusta!

 

[thejeepdude]

ok guys, i stripped my polished aluminum wheels and polished the machined face. they look unbelievable! but... the stock center caps look like hell.

Um, you mean you stripped your painted wheels and polished them? I was considering doing that, but luckily they come polished now. I'd like to see pics of yours tho if you got 'em! I was wondering though, why not powder coat them with clear if they start getting dull? It sure doesn't take 5 days to cure and it's pretty durable!

 

[stevewix]

correction,

I STRIPPED AND POLISHED THE WHEELS

ceramic coating takes 5 cure days

powder coating changes the look of rough cast aluminum

 

[rmcnamee]

What did you use to strip the wheels?



Ryan

 

[CSilkowski]

Scrappy took a center cap from an earlier wheel and was able to make that work with the 3g wheels. To me, it looks better than our existing caps. The earlier caps did not stick out as far as the new ones. There is a pictures in his 'readers rig' section.

 

[thejeepdude]

powder coating changes the look of rough cast aluminum

Just trying to understand here... what part of the wheel is still rough if you polished them? I thought most of the painted surfaces that you see from the side anyways looked pretty smooth.

 

[stevewix]

the part that isnt machined, aka all of the curved parts on the wheel other than the (mostly) flat machined surface are rough cast.



find a pic of an srt-10 aluminum intake manifold, kind of dark grey, this is what my wheels look like where they're not polished.

 

[stevewix]

Scrappy took a center cap from an earlier wheel and was able to make that work with the 3g wheels. To me, it looks better than our existing caps. The earlier caps did not stick out as far as the new ones. There is a pictures in his 'readers rig' section.

thanks for the heads up on this, while these caps are MUCH easier to find in chrome on ebay, i'm thinking something more along the lines of a cup-style center cap that pushes through the center opening from the back of the wheel. my main concern is getting the wheel and center cap over the hubcentric hubs.

 

[CSilkowski]

my main concern is getting the wheel and center cap over the hubcentric hubs.

That's the big issue! I think someone that can machine a cap to work would sell a lot of them. Also, I spoke to Brad Kilby of Kilby Enterprises at a local event and he told me he's working on a hubcentric wheel for our trucks that will be out soon. I believe 17x8 for now. Don't have any idea what it will look like, but it gives us another option.

 

[stevewix]

FIRST 3 (examples) from eagle alloys



here is something like i imagine

how about the hubcentric opening diameter? does anyone know that off the top of their head?

 

[thejeepdude]

the part that isnt machined, aka all of the curved parts on the wheel other than the (mostly) flat machined surface are rough cast.



find a pic of an srt-10 aluminum intake manifold, kind of dark grey, this is what my wheels look like where they're not polished.

Right, but I thought you said you polished them... or did you just strip them? To me polishing means starting with rough sandpaper and going finer and finer until you use rubbing compound and can see your reflection in it. At that point powder coating won't change the color much, just protect it. I know of people who did this to the rough cast intakes on their CTD, and I've done it myself on wheels and ATV parts.

 

[Bertram65]

Yo Hoot had measured it and said the finished whole dia. should be 4. 774" +/-. 003 when you machine a wheel out to fit over the hub.

 

[stevewix]

Right, but I thought you said you polished them... or did you just strip them? To me polishing means starting with rough sandpaper and going finer and finer until you use rubbing compound and can see your reflection in it. At that point powder coating won't change the color much, just protect it. I know of people who did this to the rough cast intakes on their CTD, and I've done it myself on wheels and ATV parts.

look in the nicest way possible,

i did strip them, i did polish them. polish to me means the same as it does to you.

a. when a part has a smooth machine finish already, all that is needed is a spiral sewn wheel and tripoli compound to make it shine; its already smoothed out (save for some uniform ripples, hardly noticeable).



if i was to polish the cast portions, i would need sandpaper, but i opted to leave those cast.



NO the wheels are not painted, they are clear powdercoated, at least on the machined part.

i'm about 90% sure you are not picturing the same wheels i am.



what is your email? i'll try and get you a pic.

 

[thejeepdude]

if i was to polish the cast portions, i would need sandpaper, but i opted to leave those cast.

No problem, that is all I was asking... I should of caught that when you said "polished the machinede face" in the first post, but I still didn't realize you weren't trying to make the cast part shiny too... sorry for p'n you off

 

[stevewix]

no, i wasnt offended, just having a ****ty day at the grind. no harm no foul, stay tuned for pics

 

[CSilkowski]

I'm buying a set of stock aluminum take offs next week. Hopefully I can find someone around town that can polish the wheels for me. I will probably choose to polish just the smooth face and not the rough cast faces on the side of the spokes. Until Steve comes up with a center cap fix, I may buy a set of those 2gen center caps like Scrappy has.

 

[stevewix]

thats kinda what i was pondering earlier tonight. i've checked a few wheel makers websites, and its a bit tough to find caps that are remotely close to the right diameter. i wish i could shave the stock style down so that they dont stick out so far, (no need) but it doesnt seem to be possible. also thinking of simply painting the hubs black and using chrome lug nuts, that would look okay too. the alum wheels have such a nice dish, it seems a shame to 'ruin' them with 5" center caps. i'm confident that someone will come up with something usable, maybe even something billet from a company like billet specialties, budnik, or colo. custom. they can cnc those can't they? as resourceful as this board is, im actually somewhat surprised that we're still trying to come up with something usable.



we'll figure it out,



steve.