Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[C.B.]

Interesting to find that all the various metal parts on the Citation solid wheel cover are made of stainless steel except the locking clamp (which is made from re-cycled Lancia's). When I noticed the clamp was in such a bad state, I drilled out the three pop-rivets that secure it to the ABS outer shell and then tried to grind all the rust off and painted it with thick coats of hammerite, but the metal was now so thin by now I could see it was a waste of time.
On a call to the dealer I found that the clamp is not a listed part, the only way to buy a new one is to buy a complete outer shell - cost?  £474.47 + tax...  (BTW this was confirmed by IM Dealer Support).

Other alternative was to buy a new aftermarket cover/clamp which would mean removing the wheel and bucketing the base and outer shell.  Cost? - around £100... and a complete waste of otherwise perfect parts.

So anyone who finds their wheel cover clamp rusted away to brown dust might like to adopt this simple solution.

First here's the old clamp after attempted refurb: >>



Having realised this was a waste of time, plan B kicked in. I drilled out the two pop rivets from the base shell so I could remove the rear bracket that the locking clamp locks onto. This bracket is now of no use and was replaced with a new bracket made from stainless steel. Also, instead of a clamp on the outer shell, I cut and folded another piece of stainless to form a matching surface against the bracket.
Here's a labelled piccy of the work in progress: >>



Once all the parts were simulated in cardboard, the metal ones were made, I marked, drilled and fitted the rear bracket
first using pop rivets, re-using the original inner stainless steel support plate.

Then, after placing the outer cover back on the car and positioning the new outer bracket against the cover using double-sided-tape to mark and drill the 3 hole positions. I put the original stainless inner plate back and fixed both in place, again using pop rivets.
This shows final parts in place: >>



One good thing about this approach is that you can bolt it, padlock it, or whatever and it will probably outlast the other bits
on the vehicle that were made from re-cycled Lancia's.

Hope that gives some help to others with a rusted-out spare wheel cover clamp.  
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'00 3.5i V6 SWB Trooper (18 MPG )
'02 SAAB 95T Aero (F.A.F.   )
'19 1.5D Nissan Van (Mr. NV   )

[Google]

[DAVID's J99P]

Good work mate, gives it a nice look, the one on mines not to bad but the holes to small to get a
padlock through (well not one that I couldnt snap off with my fingers)
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aka x66dag

David ltm47