Urgent Wheel Cover Question

Joseph Lombardi

 Anyone ever have a crack in their wheelcover (by wheelcover I mean Wheelbuilder/Disc Wheel cover)...like the one in this photo?  What did you do? Where you able to do any quick repair?  Help...I need this for Sunday IMLOU

rbogle

 No, but my guess is you could put a layer of packing tape (maybe sandwiching a light washer around the hole) on the inside and use an all-purpose glue (like superglue) in the cracks to mend it temporarily. Did you call Wheelbuilder?

Keith Wick

Wow, never seen that before. I like Rian's suggestion although I'd go the hardware store and look for a small rubber grommet for the hole. I'd also use duct tape on both side with a little glue or epoxi. I'd also use the duct tape or electrical tape in that area to ensure the cover is tightly sealed to the rim once you have it installed with the screws (make sure the tape doesn't hit your breaking surface.

William Jenks

For the short term, I totally agree that this is nothing that a bit of tape won't fix. I'd use electrical tape myself, but that's just an aesthetic choice. That isn't a mend; it's just a patch-over.

I have (accidentally) ridden with a couple of rivets not in the wheel cover with no ill effects, and I am quite confident that you will not have any trouble with your wheel cover on race day just missing one rivet. For insurance, though, a couple of thoughts:

1) if you have deep dish wheel that you're putting it on (e.g., 404 or something similar), you can electrical tape the cover to the rim. A lot of people do this and don't even use the rivets at all. If, however, you're like me and use it on a standard rim like an Open Pro, you won't have "space" to tape it on because it's so close to the braking surface.

2) In order to ensure that none of the other rivets come off, you can put a 1-2 inch strip of electrical tape over each of them on both sides of the wheel. Now you know that no vibrations will unscrew them or anything.

Worst case scenario, I literally would clip that part off and just tape over it to cover the hole, much like you do for the stem cutout.

Steve West

x2 what the other have suggested but be careful not to get too many grams on the cover in 1 spot. Just think of how your car acts when you need to balance one of your wheels.

Use a washer and some tape but keep it on the light side. Good luck Sunday!

John Withrow

I would do even less than everyone else suggested. I know you are stressed because it is so close to your race, but it'll be totally fine and you are going to have an aweome race.

I would personally use a little bit of superglue to keep everything in place, then after it dries, I would put a couple inch long piece of electric tape on the edge and bend it over both sides.then I'd put about a 1 or 2 inch piece on the front and back to cover the hole from both sides (the smaller the better). I'd then use a pen tip or a nail to poke a small hole in the middle of where the rivet hole is so the little plastic rivet is snug on it. I might put a tiny piece of electric tape over that side of the plastic rivet, but maybe not, depends if it is snug when you put the wheel cover on. Obviously, don't make that particular rivet all that tight. Instead of using electric tape, you could use one of the pieces that you would normally cover the valve stem hole (if you have any extras) after you used the superglue.

Paul Hough

Looks like a stress fracture on that rivet joint, but not a big deal for one more use. I cast my vote with superglue + electrical tape on both sides although lots of other options will probably work. Pick one and don't worry about it this time. Get it replaced for the next one.

Cary Blanco

A little bit of electrical tape with be fine. don't worry and have a great race.

mgraffeo

Great suggestions here. I cracked mine the first race I ever used it 3 years ago, fixed with just electrical tape on race morning, and have used it ever since, no problem. I've since cracked it in one or two other places, same fix, no problem. A little electrical tape goes a long way! I will have to try the super solution John drew up, that sounds awesome!

Joseph Lombardi

 THANKS EVERYONE!...PANIC ATTACK OVER....NERVES CALMED...off ot HomeDepot today.

[Deleted User]

Good luck with that Joe. See you tonight I hope.

Dino Sarti

My favorite quote when my day and I built ultralight airplanes.... "Nothing to worry about. It's not structural.". Haha!

Did it work fine?

Joseph Lombardi

 YES DINO it worked and looked great...I combined some tips and utilized some black duct tape..and glued around the edges.