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MG MG Y Type - Hub Caps

Hey all, I have received 4 new hubcaps from a well known English supplier. When I went to install them they will not fit! On close examination, the I.D. of the new ones is 9 5/8 inches. The old ones are 9 3/4 inches. Question; does anyone have an idea as to how to "stretch" the new ones?

The supplier would gladly take them back but the shipping is 80% of the cost! ( If I wash the wheels in very hot water will they shrink?) Ha-ha Tom
Thomas McNamara

Thomas

What diameter are your wheels? Send me an email with pictures of them please with your tape measure on them and also the lugs on your wheels too. If you want to mail me ONE of the new ones you received I will try them against my car here.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Tom,
I recently had the same problem with some new hubcaps for a classic Mini that I am restoring.

My hubcaps had a rolled over rim edge which hadn’t been flattened properly and I solved the problem by putting the hubcap on a solid surface and gently tapping the rim flat all the way around from the inside of the cap with a convex panel beater's hammer.

A better way would have been to flatten the rim on a wheeling machine, but I don’t have one of these here. They fit now!

The alternative to flattening them all the way around it to just flatten them where they clip over the wheel studs.

I felt that I should not have had to do this with a new part – a new part should fit without the need to be rectified, but I guess when everything comes from China or India, there’s not a lot else one can do.

If that is not your problem, I have no other suggestions, sorry.

Neil
N Wakeman

Hey Neil, thanks for the idea. I tried your approach but ended up with a "hammered" looking hub cap. I guess it's live and learn on this one. I'll keep my eyes peeled for 10" hubcaps that are 9 3/4 I.D. Be well, Spring is here! Tom
Thomas McNamara

I bought a set of new hub caps last year on ebay from classicxcarxspares. They were a very reasonable price, manufactured in Birmingham (not China) fitted very well and were excellent quality. It is heartening to see that we haven't lost all our manufacturing to the far east,
John Foster Y4895
J Foster

Message for Neal; After a short lesson on how to "stretch" sheet metal, I was able to get 3 of the hub caps to fit using your method. I have an original that I can save, making a set of four. THANK YOU for your note. Be well, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Reactivating for convenience: I too have a set of lovely shiny hubcaps, which I actually bought some 3 or 4 years ago( I can't remember where!), and only now discover that they do not fit. They must be part of that batch of just-too-small diameter caps.
I don't like the sound of hammering the inner rim - what do people think about the idea of making a small cutout in 3 measured points, just enough to receive the retaining pins - and then carefully tapping the rim round a bit to secure? This would cut into the chrome a bit, so anti-rust measures would have to be part of the plan.
I'd like to know whether anyone else has had any success.
John.


J P Hall

Bought mine from a company north of Birmingham UK, very nice quality . One fitted easily , two quite tight and one would have needed a lot of force if I had persisted . The hub caps are mass produced by modern methods so I assume my wheels ,which have not yet been stripped and painted are the problem in my case .
They are covered in god knows how many coats of paint applied by brush by me in the 1970s .I look forward to trying the hubcaps on the stripped wheels and wonder if a tickle with a file on the lugs may be a way forward, I really dont fancy trying to modify the hubcaps .
Keep you posted
John B Y4424
J K Bowman

That was my first thought too, John - lugs made 72 years ago, may or may not all be the same size ... so before I defile (does that qualify as a pun?) an unblemished hubcap I'll offer one up to bare-metal lugs and go from there.
I'll report my findings for the record. John.
J P Hall

Some wheels have small pins welded to the centres, while others have slightly larger pins.

The cutout idea seems the best solution - just unsure which would be the best way to rotate on each side so they did not "undo" while driving.

It is worth writing your phone number & the word "REWARD" on the inside of your hubcaps in the event you lose one and it is found.

Safety Fast

Tony
The Classic Workshop
A L SLATTERY

When I replaced my hubcaps last year, they were rather tight. So, I warmed them up on the running engine for ten minutes, so that they expanded just a bit, and then they slipped on easily. Cooling down they're tight fitting, so shouldn't drop off if (or, rather, "when") I hit a pot hole in the road.
A J R Felthouse

Worth mentioning here is our Hint and tip on ensuring hubcaps do not come off accidentally - see https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/imgytr/hints&tips.shtml#Hubcaps_falling_off

Paul
Paul Barrow

Tony, the reward suggestion would be a good idea if the world was an honest place. I have 'lost' not one, but two, hub caps at classic car meetings. It's not the hub cap that they are after, I mean, you can't go to a classic car show and not come away with an MG badge as a souvenir.
NTG https://www.mgbits.com/ came up trumps with replacements but the background on the new hub caps, behind the octagon, is black, the originals are a deep maroon. I shall probably get them all matched once the world gets back into some semblance of order.
R Taylor

Just on the "colour of hubcap emblem" point above: the ones I bought and squirreled away in 2017 have a fire-engine red background - which will look horrible with my deep green bodywork. Was red background used across all colour schemes? I lean towards changing it to a more subtle background, maybe black. That's assuming I can make the hubcaps fit!
Yours,
John.
J P Hall

Bear in mind gentlemen that not all Ys had medallions on the hub caps - see Let there be Ys for details.
Paul Barrow

Quite so, Paul - my very unmolested '49 YA came with plain hubcaps which I still have; but scarred by exhorbitant rechroming costs over here, plus bad experience with results, I opted to put away a spare new set - but for the life of me I don't know why I bought a set with medallions instead of plain. As I said above, I can't ask the UK supplier if they'll let me do a swap, because I can't remember where I bought them. They don't look like the ones supplied by NTG, one of my go-to suppliers.
Anyone on the bbs have a set of plain hubcaps they bought by mistake ... ???
J P Hall

This thread was discussed between 16/03/2017 and 18/04/2021

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