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  1. #1
    Senior Member 3dplane's Avatar
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    Smooth wheel covers

    Today I made wheel covers to block airflow through the factory 14" alloy wheels of the Mirage, in hopes of improving aerodynamics.




    Now it's got that gangsta/hypermiler look to it

    Yeah but how did you do it? - Well, I'm glad you asked. If you want to see a little how-to,then read on.

    I had some plastic sheet signs. (not coroplast). About 1mm thick(or thin rather). Enough for four 14" circles.

    A little brittle,it breaks when bent 90 degrees but decided to give it a shot.

    The alloy wheel is curved so a flat sheet will not work. We need to get it convex.

    I have a homemade english wheel (I just realized most everything I own is homemade..darn!),that is basically a large C-clamp where you pinch sheet material between a curved roller and a flat roller and as the sheet is moved back and forth,the material stretches so one can make compound curves if done correctly.

    Starting out





    Work it on the inside of the circle (not the edge)'till it buckles up.





    Then the trick that worked for me was to turn it over and roll around near the edge but not touching the edge!

    This seems to stress the material to pop the dome out where the material was previously stretched around the middle.







    Checking humpyness and fit:





    Then I removed a wheel so I can trace and mark for mounting holes around the spokes and after drilling I painted them flat black.

    When that dried I mounted them with zip ties! What a pain in the neck that was with the wheels on!

    Close up:



    Test drive up to 78 MPH and they stayed on so I hope they survive for a while.

    To check tire pressure I will just cut a couple of the zip ties and hopefully get to the valve stem.
    Attached Images Attached Images        

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 66.3 mpg (US) ... 28.2 km/L ... 3.5 L/100 km ... 79.7 mpg (Imp)


  2. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to 3dplane For This Useful Post:

    fifteenwindow (11-25-2013),MetroMPG (11-26-2013),zefke (12-12-2013)

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