Hubcap Repair

[Yellowbird]

Driving back from a show a couple of weeks ago I heard that sickening sound...PING Ping ping.
Next morning on the side of the freeway I found my newly dented 1958 hubcap.
Is there anyone who repairs these? I would prefer not to spend $ 90.00 for a new one.
Thanks for the help.
Leonard

[Guest]

You may want to try using pieces of wood cut or shaped as punches or dollies to use with your hammer. Figure out the convex or concave you want to pound to restore the shape. Fashion your wooden punches or dollies out of wood. Punches can be 1/4" to 1/2" square end sticks about 6" long. You can sand or grind an edge, point or curved radius to the end of the sticks if you need to. You can use a 12" long piece of pine or fir 2x6 or 4x4 to drum sand or grind a radius into to use for curvatures you are pounding to the restore the shape to the hup cap. Place the 2x or 4x piece of wood on the work bench or cement floor and use a small plastic/rubber end mallet to pound into the dolly. Use maple or oak for your wood punch chisels.

Use the wire cup brushes on a die or angle grinder for finishing. Flat filing with a bastard and mill file will also work. Then finish off with wet/dry paper maybe starting with 280, 320. 400 and lastly 600 before you use a heavy duty buffing compound to shine and take out the 600 marks with. Go slowly as this whole process may take you several hours. Best of success in restoring the hubcap.

If you want to keep the hubcaps on the rims in the future, consider using a triangle file and cut 4 teeth into each hubcap grip flange before you put the caps back on the rims.

[Yellowbird]

Thanks for the information. I try this over the weekend. Like you said, it appears to be a long tedious process.
Leonard