BXProject

Sorry, sounds daft but its bugging me



Right, I picked up a couple of these hubcaps at Gaydon, The front nearside one has flown off twice in two days, having stayed put fine down the motorway. Both times were at 30mph on the same straight smooth road near where I live.

1 Does anybody know if it makes any difference which type of wheel you have fitted as to whether they stay on? The PO had been given some spare wheels and tyres from a scrapped BX. I think the other wheels are all painted silver and this one is black so from the other set.

2 Theres no obvious way to cable tie it on.......or is there?

Cheers guys, if its the wheel I can easily get the tyre swapped onto the other rim. Just thought it was worth asking before spending an afternoon driving myself nuts with cable ties.

On a plus note I've seen my first BX apart from mine and the others at Gaydon since picking this one up. A red turbo diesel hatch at Leominster car boot sale

image no worky!

Does the trim touch the tyre at all?
I assume it's held to the wheel via the bolts? Or does it secure via the rim?

Evening Doc

Its held on by the bolts, but not bolted down under them if that makes sense. I'll bash it on in the morning and see if its touching the tyre.
Sorry about the lack of image its this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/31412391@N02/4755338547/
I did the usual forum thing of click the image tag then paste the address between the square bracketted url's. I have noticed that this approach appears not to work on here though

Rich

Did you get the right image tag? Anyways, I had them on my TGD and the only time I lost one was when I didn't wham it on right.

I wonder what the wheel was off. Does it have the same wheel bolts as the others?

Just noticed what time you posted. Another one to join Doc on the late shift!

if you right click the link and open in new window it works fine.

I had that pattern and mine have never come off, but then I never bash them on, I always remove the bolts and refit them. No it doesn't clamp them but it does just nip them enough to make them secure. Once they have been bashed on and off a few times the inner edge wears and you lose this facility.
I made a thin plastic washer to put the nip back, so to speak, on 2 bolts each wheel, when D's old RD started to depart it's trims.

They pretty much the same type as the Zant, they're all loose and wobbly from being yanked off over the bolts (and they rattle like fuck over bumps) but they've never fallen off.

Looking at their design i'd say the were supposed to be fitted before the bolts rather than stretched over them...

Might i suggest warming the prongs of the bolt holes on them and bending them closed a bit then refit them before the bolts. Should clear up your slackness a bit...

the address you put between the IMG tags where for the web page and not for the image, you'll find its now fixed. In future, right mouse button on the image, select properties and use the link in the window that pops up.

I would be wary of heating them as they are made from polygamous placcy of unknown properties. ie Thermo plastic or thermo setting.

I suppose you could try it on a scrap one first.

Isn't it usually refered to as ABS plastic? For which the range of properties are well known?

I've melted, bent, joined, soldered etc ABS before... is that not normal??

Perfectly normal, i used to do it a fair bit on plastic kayaks. and might have a go at the Focus some time.

Vanny wrote:and might have a go at the Focus some time

With a sledgehammer?

Cheers guys,

I had a look at the rim today and maybe the cars trying to tell me something, its got some really nasty rot on it

I'll have a dig through the spares and find whichever one seems to match the rest, newer front tyres might be wise anyway. I'll have a go at the plastic washers as well. Having other nerdy hobbies means that I've got a stock of 1mm plastic sheet and a craft knife.
I was expecting to have to take the wheelnuts out to fit them, but was told it was ok to bash them on, ho hum

Does anybody else see all those cars about with the trims cable-tyed on and wonder how the fuck they are going to get them off if they get a flat tyre. Maybe its an excuse to call the AA out for something that anybody should know how to do themselves

Sorry to be a pain in the arse about the images, but with the pic in the first post

I did a right click it on the image in flickr,
then copied the address from the properties pop-up window
and pasted it between the 2 img tags.

I fully appreciate that its me being a fuckwit as Vanny had got it displayed in all its glory but I don't know what I did wrong

Cheers Guys

Rich

ABS is fine but there are so many different plastics on the BX you never know. There used to be a chart with them all listed, I don't know if it's around anymore

Some you couldn't weld you now can as there are polypropylene filler rods now, of different composition.
Thermoplastics are stable but thermosetting go brittle once re heated and cooled.

The stuff they make gutters and downspouts are an example of this.

I have some BX rims in Stroud mate, but it's a bit of a trek to yours! I used to have some of those trims aswell since they adorned my red / pink car until it got shod in Alloys.. I very much doubt I still have them though, but I do find them you're welcome to them.

Cheers for the offer Doc but I'm already overloaded with rims . The car came with 5 spare wheels + the 1 underneath and 5 loose tyres.

I took him to the tyrefitters today to fit a couple of those loose tyres (Hankooks ) I dug out the spare rim that I'd shoved in the loft with the loose tyres to replace the rusty one. I've been meaning to go to the tyrefitters anyway for wheelbalancing, to cure the vibrations at speed that I was getting on the way back from Gaydon. Mind you I'm not sure what speed that was as he was fine at 75 earlier this week on a local road after the speedo had been fixed

I've just found the problem I've been having posting pics

If I sign out of Flickr, then view the pic, go to properties, its a different address to when I'm signed in and works when posted.

So heres the other old wreck that clogs up my drive


Ideally if anybody knows a way that I don't have to sign out each time I want to post something it would be cool but for the mo I'm chuffed at being able to do something

I used to have a type 2 aswell. It was a 1977 2.0 litre automatic, which for those who don't know their VW buses too well, are as rare as rocking horse shit!

I really wish I still had it...

I really wish I still had it..

Surely not. They may be rare as rh shit but they are about as useful too.

While I'm usually a confirmed hater of autoboxs in general, the bleedin awful gearchange in my type 2 means I can really see the benefit of not having to do it