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I just finished putting a set of 15 x 6 honda steelie on from a civic 2001-2005 had to bore out the center hole I’ll post a picture
I have a set of 8″ dia. baby moons they have a few grooves on the face and a spot to put the MG emblem I have not worked out how to hold them to the wheel yet a little time and I’ll work it out. I remember my DAD tell me 2 things take care of most problems TIME and MONEY
ok , heres’ my idea. put a piece of metal from one lug nut to the opposite , put a screw thru the center of the hubcap and cover with the emblem………or maybe magnets….hope you post a pic when they’re mounted
On my VW based car ,I’m using wire wheelcovers from a front wheel drive Buick Rivera. I drilled and taped a hole for a very short 1/4 ”bolt in the space between the lug nuts. I bent a piece of flat metal to reach from one hole to the other,while extending out over the hub cap/axle nut. I used a 5/16 bolt to reach thru the center of the hub cap and a tri bar spinner screws on to the bolt. The spinner serves as a hubcap lock and keeps the heavy stainless wheelcover in place.
I don’t think you will want to use spinners on your baby moons and if you use MG emblems that glue on to the hubcap to cover the screws,you would damage the emblem every time you removed the cap. Original MG hubcap emblems are held on by a cotter pin that fits behind the hubcap so that makes it even more difficult .
For the center caps on mine. I made 2″ round black plastic caps out of some old storage bin dividers with a hole saw. Glued the MG emblem to them and then stuck them on the hub cap with double sided foam tape. Kinda makes it a pain when I want to change a tire, but the roll of tape is cheap and holds very well. I tried magnets and they did’t seem to hold tight enough, not sure how much force is actually needed at 40-50-60 mph. So far the tape has held for 2 years. I check them each time I wipe down the wires too.
I don’t like wire baskets and went a different route. I sanded and painted
the wheels, then went to a local hubcap junk shop. He found the little
hubcaps (off a Chrysler, as I recall). I polished and mounted them, then got
the MG decals from Fast Signs. They were running a special. Total cost for
five wheels, $85.00. Photo in the gallery.
DickH, Thanks for posting the picture,I’ve been wondering about your wheels since you put your car in the photo gallery. I see that they are 14”. I was thinking that the Chevette came with 13” wheels.Just wondering if they were originally from the Chevette donar car or from something else. I’ve seen two BCWs on the internet with wheels that were very much like your’s but using a different type center,however I have not been able to identify what they were originally on.
You have a very nice BCW and the wheels look good as well.
Re: wheel size. The 14″ wheels were on the car when I bought it and were
not original to the Chevette, which were 13″. I don’t know where the 14″
wheels came from.
The car was a basket case when I got it and barely running. The drive
home was sporting, to say the least. Luckily, all the bits and pieces were
with it, and the body and engine were in good shape. Whoever did the
basic construction did a good job, but the village idiot must have wired
the car and did much of the detailing. I had to totally rebuild the
suspension, brakes, and steering. Shifting into reverse was a hit and miss
proposition and I had visions of pulling the engine and tranny to fix it.
Rick Drake out of Everett WA came to the rescue. The shift lever rides on
a plastic bushing that is accessible from the top. I’ve attached a photo
that shows the rod inside the tranny without the plastic bushing. It was a
twenty dollar part that clipped right in. Twenty minutes later, the problem
was solved.
Then I went to work detailing the engine and body. This amounted to a
lot of elbow grease and throwing money at it in the form of powder
coating, chrome bolts and fasteners and goodies. I actually plucked the
remains of a rats nest out of a rear wheel well.
I got lucky and found a Moss Motors leather seat and upholstery kit for a
fraction of the going price. The upholstery kit didn’t quite fit but the
leather seat covers did! Now that looks great.
The heater leaked, so i jerked it out and relocated the battery. The big
break came when I was able to register the car under the California
SB100 Specialty Car act, and do away with the smog inspection. That
really allowed me to clean up the engine and make it more efficient. Now
here’s the kicker. I had to take it to a smog referee to finalize the
certification. They tested it for pollution to see if it was a “Gross Polluter.”
It passed the pollution test but would not have passed a normal
inspection because the engine did not have the required air filter and air
pump. Go figure.
I still get an intermittent valve clatter, like a loose lifter, when I drive at
prolonged freeway speeds. However, all I have to do is stop and turn off
the engine for a few minutes. I’m working on that one.
Next big project: New carpets and tonneau cover.
Way yo go Dick! Sounds like the shifter bushing is a detail that the Chevette and VW cars share.
As for the smog stuff, it is my considered opinion that the Air Injection Reaction Pump was a scam. The suckers weigh about 25 pounds, rob HP, and they were supposed to supply catalyst air to the very hot post-exhaust-valve flow with the idea that–I guess–the added oxygen would reduce some CO and other bad emissions.
Any engineers out there please correct me if I’m wrong.
Just seemed bogus to me, not unlike the “dilute-it-till-you-can’t-smell-it . . . much” school of industrial waste management that was so en vogue during the ’70s and ’80s.
Anyway. Good riddance to AIR pumps.
The heater, though, is another story. Hope you never need that back.
Oh, yeah–for lifter noise? Marvel Mystery Oil. Seriously. Couldn’t hurt.
Ed, the VW and Chevette shifter bushings are both nylon, but that’s where the similarity stops.
The VW bushing acts like a true bushing with the tubular shifter shaft riding through it.
The Chevette “bushing” is actually a “U” shaped foot that fits onto a machined area of the shift shaft and the shifter handle “fork” slips over it.
Both of these bushings cause about the same problem when they disintegrate though…can’t find gears.
These Chevette shifter “bushings” were like hen’s teeth a few years ago according to Rick Drake. I put an NOS one in the transmission that’s in Larry Murphy’s BCW. I had the trans apart because the nylon speedometer drive gear had disintegrated and left just a melted nylon burn mark on the trans tailshaft. I think I posted a pic in my gallery of that when I fixed it.
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