luxstang
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2010
- Messages
- 6,624
- Reaction score
- 101
- Location
- Luxembourg / Europe
- My Car
- 1972 Mustang Convertible
Ok, I've been up to no good as usual and I had an idea which I wasn't sure how to make it work.
Some of you may remember that I've had my Magnum 500s powder coated a while ago and that I did not really like the result.
But I've always been a sucker for the Mopar style steel rim with hubcaps but no rings look and I bought some hubcaps off Ebay in September but I had no wheel to put them on.
So I thought I needed to come up with a way to make do with what I had here.
Here's the result:
Pretty different, eh?
Believe it or not, those are the Magnum 500s underneath those hubcaps.
How do you put hubcaps on Magnums? Well, that's the problem I've been dealing with and I tried lots of ideas which were all crap until I found these clips which are for vintage VWs, Bugs and the famous small vans (or busses as we call them)
http://www.justkampers.com/111-698-131-hub-cap-clips-pack-of-5-vw-beetle-1947-1966-vw-t2-split-1950-1967-vw-t2-bay-1967-1971.html
The cool thing is that they are located in the UK, so lower shipping costs and no taxes (...yet! Stupid Brexit!!)
I didn't know whether they would fit but for +-30 bucks I thought, meh, let's try them.
And wouldn't you believe it, they fit perfectly!! And I mean PERFECTLY, not only ok. If they were specifically made for those Ford hubcaps they couldn't fit any better.
So now comes the hardest part..... drilling holes in my original rims..... yikes!
The clips are meant to be riveted on but I chose to screw them on. As the holes need to be drilled on the flat surface (more on that later), I needed to raise them by 5 mm which I did with a M6 nut in between the rim and the clip which raises the clip to the exact height.
And here's the rim with all 5 clips installed. You can see here that I had tried to screw the clips into the "slopes" first, so that they'd be flush with the hub cap base but I had forgotten that the tilted angle would not allow the clips to work properly. Of course I only noticed it after I had drilled the 5 holes and installed the 5 clips.
Plus you see holes in the flat surfaces that are empty. That was because I then tried to spread 4 clips instead of 5 more or less evenly on the rim but I found out that they were impossible to center correctly, so I had to opt for 5 clips and relocate the two so that they were all in the same spot. Still a lot of trial and error involved.
The other rims are less "swiss cheese" than this one though. Sorry!
So that's that. Hub caps on a Magnum 500 can be done.
I would prefer the look to be more "deep dish" but that's because the rim has this "pyramid" in the middle. Oh, by the way, I was surprised to find that the hubcaps clear the rim completely. I was afraid the center piece of the rim might be higher than the inside of the cap and that would have ruined it all but in fact only the base (outer ring) of the cap touches the rim, the rest clears the rim perfectly.
Now I wonder whether I should turn the tires around so that the letters face towards the inside and they show only black wall....
What I will do though, and that was the whole idea behind it, is, I will raise the suspension.
The car has become almost undriveable, suspension travel is the width of a quarter. Not a quarter of an inch but an actual 25 cent piece. I could just squeeze a quarter in between the hump on the upper control arm and the rubber bumper on the shock tower reinforcement plate but I had to get pliers to get it out again. The car handles like a go cart but unfortunately our roads do not allow for this kind of setup.
Relocating the rubber bumpers to a higher position is also no option as you can not squeeze in a standard pencil in between the wheel arch opening and the tire when the wheel is turned, so it would immediately hit the fender if there was more suspension travel.
I'm really sorry I have to do this and make my car less remarkable and special but I fear too much structural damage from hitting potholes that make my keys jingle in the ignition.
I guess this is what it will look like for a while, only a little higher, more classic muscle than restomod. Who knows what the future brings......
Some of you may remember that I've had my Magnum 500s powder coated a while ago and that I did not really like the result.
But I've always been a sucker for the Mopar style steel rim with hubcaps but no rings look and I bought some hubcaps off Ebay in September but I had no wheel to put them on.
So I thought I needed to come up with a way to make do with what I had here.
Here's the result:
Pretty different, eh?
Believe it or not, those are the Magnum 500s underneath those hubcaps.
How do you put hubcaps on Magnums? Well, that's the problem I've been dealing with and I tried lots of ideas which were all crap until I found these clips which are for vintage VWs, Bugs and the famous small vans (or busses as we call them)
http://www.justkampers.com/111-698-131-hub-cap-clips-pack-of-5-vw-beetle-1947-1966-vw-t2-split-1950-1967-vw-t2-bay-1967-1971.html
The cool thing is that they are located in the UK, so lower shipping costs and no taxes (...yet! Stupid Brexit!!)
I didn't know whether they would fit but for +-30 bucks I thought, meh, let's try them.
And wouldn't you believe it, they fit perfectly!! And I mean PERFECTLY, not only ok. If they were specifically made for those Ford hubcaps they couldn't fit any better.
So now comes the hardest part..... drilling holes in my original rims..... yikes!
The clips are meant to be riveted on but I chose to screw them on. As the holes need to be drilled on the flat surface (more on that later), I needed to raise them by 5 mm which I did with a M6 nut in between the rim and the clip which raises the clip to the exact height.
And here's the rim with all 5 clips installed. You can see here that I had tried to screw the clips into the "slopes" first, so that they'd be flush with the hub cap base but I had forgotten that the tilted angle would not allow the clips to work properly. Of course I only noticed it after I had drilled the 5 holes and installed the 5 clips.
Plus you see holes in the flat surfaces that are empty. That was because I then tried to spread 4 clips instead of 5 more or less evenly on the rim but I found out that they were impossible to center correctly, so I had to opt for 5 clips and relocate the two so that they were all in the same spot. Still a lot of trial and error involved.
The other rims are less "swiss cheese" than this one though. Sorry!
So that's that. Hub caps on a Magnum 500 can be done.
I would prefer the look to be more "deep dish" but that's because the rim has this "pyramid" in the middle. Oh, by the way, I was surprised to find that the hubcaps clear the rim completely. I was afraid the center piece of the rim might be higher than the inside of the cap and that would have ruined it all but in fact only the base (outer ring) of the cap touches the rim, the rest clears the rim perfectly.
Now I wonder whether I should turn the tires around so that the letters face towards the inside and they show only black wall....
What I will do though, and that was the whole idea behind it, is, I will raise the suspension.
The car has become almost undriveable, suspension travel is the width of a quarter. Not a quarter of an inch but an actual 25 cent piece. I could just squeeze a quarter in between the hump on the upper control arm and the rubber bumper on the shock tower reinforcement plate but I had to get pliers to get it out again. The car handles like a go cart but unfortunately our roads do not allow for this kind of setup.
Relocating the rubber bumpers to a higher position is also no option as you can not squeeze in a standard pencil in between the wheel arch opening and the tire when the wheel is turned, so it would immediately hit the fender if there was more suspension travel.
I'm really sorry I have to do this and make my car less remarkable and special but I fear too much structural damage from hitting potholes that make my keys jingle in the ignition.
I guess this is what it will look like for a while, only a little higher, more classic muscle than restomod. Who knows what the future brings......
