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Location: The Mile High City | Installed some new wheel covers on the De Soto today. Adventurer style!
(spinners 1.jpg)
(spinners 2.jpg)
(spinners 3.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- spinners 1.jpg (243KB - 451 downloads) spinners 2.jpg (241KB - 442 downloads) spinners 3.jpg (250KB - 437 downloads)
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Location: The Mile High City | The old wheel covers, for comparison:
(05 Wilson Arch 102517.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- 05 Wilson Arch 102517.jpg (245KB - 491 downloads)
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Veteran
Posts: 143
Location: Malmberget, Sweden | Nice. |
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Expert
Posts: 1223
Location: Ramona, CA | Looks great. |
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Location: The Mile High City | Thanks fellas! I have to take them on a road test to make sure they are tight and don't spin. It was a suprisingly big project to put those things together! |
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Expert
Posts: 3153
Location: NY & VT | Looks spiffy! Are they NORS or OEM or? |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9604
Location: So. Cal | Who did you use for chroming the centers? They look great. |
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Location: The Mile High City | I had been thinking about this for a long time. I started out buying a single 1956 Chrysler spinner cover here on the forward look site. It was totally pitted, but inexpensive. I held on to that for a long while and then bought a cheap 1957 De Soto wheel cover to see just how they fit together. Earlier this year, I bought a set of 1956 Chrysler Windsor spinner wheel covers on eBay; they had been for sale for a long time and I made an offer to the seller and we came to an agreement. The spinners were already repaired and rechromed (I don't know by whom) and they came with the red center caps. It was a leap of faith and very, very expensive. I then had to purchase a full set of 1957 De Soto wheel covers. I purchased several. To my surprise, there are at least three varieties of 1957 De Soto wheel covers! I had to buy a bunch of them to get a set that was up to the standards of the restored Chrysler spinners. I then had to cut the centers out of the De Soto wheel covers and I colored the silver portion with a light gold tint. I put the whole thing together and I think I have a reasonable representation of the 1958 Adventurer wheel covers with the exception of the center emblem. The 1956 Chrysler Windsor red emblem matches the color of my car, so I think it fits. In the end, I think it is a decent representation of the best wheel cover available for the 1958 De Soto with some modification (center cap). It is all made with original MoPar stock stuff, similar to how the the 1958 De Soto Adventurer wheel covers were fashioned. But holy cow! You talk about an expensive pain in the @ss! |
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Location: The Mile High City | Here are a few images of the various steps in the process. What I learned: - eBay images of wheel covers (perhaps all images) always look way better than the actual wheel cover!
- 1957 De Soto wheel covers had one of two methods to attach to the wheel: 4 clips (a very flat wheel cover), or a ring of tabs (a thick wheel cover)
- 1957 De Soto wheel covers came in either 1 1/2 inch inner ring face or 1 3/4 inner ring face! (who'd a thunk it!) - when compared side by side, they look really different!
- The rotation of the center spinner driling can be either bottom spinner arm facing straight down to the valve stem hole (my choice - 1956 orientation) OR
- top spinner arm facing straight up opposite the valve stem hole (1955 orientation - which option you choose requires re-orientation of the center emblem by 180 degrees).
(original test cover.jpg)
(one of many.jpg)
(colored and center cut out.jpg)
(special tools, drilling bunk, and templates.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- original test cover.jpg (231KB - 467 downloads) one of many.jpg (219KB - 450 downloads) colored and center cut out.jpg (218KB - 458 downloads) special tools, drilling bunk, and templates.jpg (193KB - 485 downloads)
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Location: The Mile High City | For a guy who didn't quite like the standard wheel cover and didn't like the wire wheels, I think I found my happy place! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9604
Location: So. Cal | It's a very good choice, and much better than the other two options, IMO. Why did you have to cut the centers on the hubcaps? |
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Expert
Posts: 3153
Location: NY & VT | Great job on fabricating custom wheel covers, very creative! |
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Location: The Mile High City | Powerflite - Why did you have to cut the centers on the hubcaps? Thanks fellas! My "test" wheel cover came to me with the clip holding the wheel center installed upside down. Based on the marks on the back of the wheel center emblem, it had been that way for a long time. I thought that's the way it was suppose to be. It made installing the test spinner on the test wheel cover easy! However, I did notice that, once installed, the center emblem seemed too loose. The 1956 Windsor cover had the center blank and (although my images don't show them well at all) tabs surrounding the center hole. When the restored spinners arrived, they had the clip installed correctly, with the convex arc. As I tried to install those, it was evident that the 1957 De Soto wheel cover center portion had to be either mashed down or removed.
(test spinner showing clip how it came.jpg)
(clip how it should be.jpg)
(1956 Windsor wheel cover front.jpg)
(1956 Windsor wheel cover back.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- test spinner showing clip how it came.jpg (233KB - 442 downloads) clip how it should be.jpg (216KB - 452 downloads) 1956 Windsor wheel cover front.jpg (225KB - 431 downloads) 1956 Windsor wheel cover back.jpg (201KB - 478 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9604
Location: So. Cal | My wheelcover came the same way as your first picture. The second way does hold it tight, but may scratch the emblem, but it does seem better to install it. |
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Location: The Mile High City | Nathan are you making a set of these too? |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9604
Location: So. Cal | Yes, but the Chrysler version, not the DeSoto. |
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Location: The Mile High City | Always impressed! |
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