'59 Project December 2004

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I have a set of four 17" wheels (wagonwheels) from a '98 Corvette mounted with 245/45ZR17 Michelin Pilots that I am going to use on the '59, but I want them to look like the original C1 wheels.  Since no one (that I know of) makes a 17" C1 wheel cover, I decided to make my own.

 

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First thing was to make a "male" mold.  I cut a large hole in a piece of 3/4" plywood and stuck an old C1 wheel cover up through the hole, filled in the cracks with body filler,  made "ribs" out of pieces of aluminum, and fabricated the "cut outs" from 1/8" aluminum welding rod.  After filling and smoothing with body filler, the whole thing was painted with primer.

 

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Next I made a "female" mold using silicon molding compound.

 

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The wheel cover and two bar spinner were cast from urethane.

 

 

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Here is the unpainted wheel cover sitting on the wheel/tire.  I will probably paint the wheel covers with a silver metallic base/clear or perhaps try a vacuum metalizing process for a "chrome" finish.

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