Anyone had experience with hubcap clips ? I need a set for my wide 5s on my Country Buggy - does Mick Motors stock them ?

Are they riveted on ?

Any suggestions to minimise skinned knuckles appreciated.

Cheers

They are riveted on,at the dealership we had a locally manufactured tool which basically was a section of I bar wit a couple of bolts welded to it to locate the rim and another with a recess to sit the rivet in,the wheel lay face down on the locating studs and the clip and rivet was then set up in place and the rivet peined.

I installed 20 a couple of months back, made my own tool. Will put up a photo tomorrow. You can buy a tool but I couldn't find where to get one. Heaps of fun to do if you like skinned knuckles. I got quite good at it by about the 18th one.

When you've got your clips & new rivets, you need a mat [rubber or carpet] to prevent paint damage.

With the wheel on the mat, clips facing up, shear the heads off the old rivets with a hammer and narrow sharp chissel - mine is an old screwdriver with no handle. Try to hit the chissel, not your hand or the wheel. Using a punch slightly smaller than the rivet diameter, punch out the remaining bit of rivet from the wheel...do not drill them out !

Drill a slight recess in the end of a bit of suitable bar or rod, to sit the rivet head in, making sure the clip sits nicely over the rivet, and doesn't fall off. It needs to be held solid in the vyce.

With a helper - I've done plenty on my own, but it is easier with someone holding the wheel - place the wheel over the rivet, making sure the clip is facing the right way, and peen the rivet flat into the recess in the back of the wheel. Then do the same with the others, only better !

don't get the cheap Chinese copies of the clips they don't work the hubcaps will fall off

I would use S/S pop-rivets...alu will corrode in time
if u cant find, I have about 8...give Mick a call...I have bought a few things lately and very gogd prices
and some wheels with another 7 or so
easy to punch out....

I did a lot of these for my CB rims. Story is pretty much the same except I did it before the rims were sent for blasting. Degree of difficulty would be a lot higher on painted show rims I expect.

Here’s my experience with them :-

If the hole is too badly flogged or rusted out, weld it up and re-drill it. I made a pin dolly, sticking up from a flat plate on the bench, long enough so the rivet head was taking the weight, the edge of the rim just off the bench. Ground a drill to make the correctly shaped recess for the rivet head.

I think I had to grind the side off the dolly to get it on the rivet head without bending the clip too much. Probably best to drill the depression to one side.

A harder steel would be better to make it out of, perhaps a grade 8 bolt? After setting it all up correctly with the clip the right way around and the rivet pointing up, I heated the rivet quickly with a small braising tip, then expanded it with a hammer and appropriate punch.

It’s important not to just mushroom the rivet, trick is to have it expand out to fill the hole and countersunk area completely, then as it cools it shrinks, mostly in length, and takes up the tension. That’s what I think anyway, mind you, we are only talking about hub cap clips, not the harbour bridge.


All the things our learned colleagues say are quite correct.

Buy the expensive ones, the cheap ones are rubbish.

Take your time getting all the gear correct, don’t want to be learning as you go.


It looks to me as though the originals were done in some sort of press or with hydraulic jaws. You can see the marks where the die pressed the rivet down.

It’s all part of the fun, enjoy. The results are rewarding.

I never thought of stainless pop rivets. No reason why not, probably stronger than the originals, and a lot quicker.

Cheers Tony

Thanks guys, I will give it a go and report back.