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Today I began installing hub cap clips on my Dexstar steel wheels. As I mentioned in an earlier post, these steel wheels have dimples on the back side that show you exactly where to drill the holes for mounting the clips. The trick is to get the clips the correct distance from the wheel so that they actually hold on to the hub caps. I used an old hub cap I bought at an antique show to test fit the clips which I spaced away from the wheels with washers and secured with machine screws and nuts. It was easy to add or subtract washers until I found the right height. In the end it turned out that 1/4" spacers under the clips was optimal. My local hardware store had Delron bushings that were 1/4" high with a 1/4" dia. hole, perfect for use with the 1/4" dia. copper rivets I purchased from McMaster-Carr.

The next step was to build a mandrel to back up the rivets on the rear side of the wheel. I used some scrap pieces of 2" square tubing and a chunk of hex stock with one end turned in a lathe to 1/2" dia. (so it would fit in the ribs of the wheel) to build the mandrel. I then used a small ball shaped die grinder tool in an electric end drill to mill out a "socket" on the top of the hex stock. This allowed the domed head of the copper rivet to sit in the top of the mandrel. I had bought a small air chisel at Hazard Fraught Tools and it came with a basic chisel tool. I cut the end off the tool and used the ball die grinder tool to make a dimple in the end as well.

With the the mandrel sitting under the wheel, a copper rivet in place, a bushing set over the rivet shank, and a clip set on top of the bushing, I then riveted over the end of the copper shank with the air chisel. The air tool got the rivet swelled enough to hold everything in place, but to really get things solid I used a hammer and punch. I think the air tool should have been larger for this job. In the end the hub cap snaps into place very nicely and isn't too difficult to remove. I think when I finally am able to drive the truck on the road I will put old, beat up hub caps on it at first to make sure they stay in place, then replace them with nice, new repop caps.