Dino Saga 080824 _ Wheel Center Caps | FerrariChat

Dino Saga 080824 _ Wheel Center Caps

Discussion in 'Corbani's Corner' started by John Corbani, Aug 24, 2008.

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  1. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    #1 John Corbani, Aug 24, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Dino Saga 080824 _ Wheel Center Caps

    Tried all over to buy Gotti caps. New from France are expensive. Wondered what could be done using digital photography to duplicate the Gotti insert. Figured I could glue a print to something that would fit in the wheel hub. Nothing to lose and car would probably look better with something plugging the hole where a lost cap used to be. I popped off one of the remaining caps and took it into the shop. 22+ years of mostly outside life had faded the paint and there were a lot of rock chips. Took a shot that got the outer circle at about 2000 pixels in diameter. Touching up all the dings was pretty easy even if it was time consuming. Just blow everything up and paint out the faults, pixel by pixel. Nice working with black, white and red. The Gotti is only black and white so there was no color matching. I don’t remember how bright the red was when I bought the car so just guessed it was a little off pure red. Didn’t know how it would print anyway. Finally printed out a full sized sample on plain paper and it looked pretty good. Laid a piece of clear film over the paper and it looked even better.

    Now I needed a base to attach it to. I cut a piece of 1” foam into a circle a half inch larger than the ID of the wheel hub. Stuffed the foam into the hub leaving about ½” clear. Coated the inside of the hub with Dawn, right out of the bottle. There is a groove ¼” in that retained the cap. I made sure that groove was well coated with the Dawn. Then filled the back half of the cavity with black silicone rubber. Rubber stuck to the foam and filled the groove. Figured the rubber would sag so did not come all the way to the outside edge. Was a warm day and rubber skinned over in a couple of hours. I let it cure for a day and then filled the rest in. Just came to the outside edge this time. Coated a piece of plastic with Dawn and got a nice smooth outside surface by using the hub surface as a guide. Let this cure for a couple of days.

    Ran a scribe in between silicone and hub and silicone released cleanly. Pried silicone out and then tore off the foam backing. Silicone had a retaining groove and a flat outer surface. Washed it off and dried it. Printed the Gotti logo on plain paper and cut it out. Red was pale but Gotti was black and sharp. Glued it to the silicone puck with more black silicone and ran a piece of clear packing tape over the whole mess. Trimmed the tape and let it set for a day. Slid the new cap into the hub, stood back and got a big grin. Color was lighter because of the plain paper but...

    Looked better than the originals and has for the last two months. I used the new HP inks and there has been no fading of the red. Cap gets direct sun every day. The packing tape seems to have bonded to the silicone pretty well. Six car washes and no lifting. When I am sure of the tape I will pull off the tape and the old picture. Then print a new picture on photo paper and put everything back again. No great rush to get a real cap now. Actually thinking of making a batch of new silicone ones to go all around and just save the originals in my goody box. Might even try to curve the face like the originals. You discover the darnedest things keeping up a Dino.

    John
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  2. dm_n_stuff

    dm_n_stuff Four Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    John.

    Try printing it in reverse on some overhead transparency film, that way, printed side is in, and you have the clear protective film on the outside.

    Do it all the time here for various and sundry things. Plus, if you find it's not dark enough, print two and sandwich them together.

    Finally, if your printer has color settings for printing, turn them off. Don't use photo or any other text color settings, just say none. You'll get truer color reproduction that way.

    If you don't have mylar, or can't print on it, send me the file I'll pop out some samples for you.

    Dave
     
  3. ENZOSON

    ENZOSON Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    Jun 3, 2004
    659
    Erie, Colorado
    Full Name:
    PIETRO
    John,


    send your drawing and dimensions to Ryan Currie (mail: [email protected])

    Website

    http://www.grafxwerks.com/

    He made some awesome centercap decals for my VW R32 and Mini Cooper S.

    He charged me $40 for the 4

    Hope this helps

    Pietro
     
  4. racerboy9

    racerboy9 Formula 3
    Silver Subscribed

    Nov 3, 2003
    2,499
    John,

    Check out these Gotti caps on Ebay France item 250286611225. They are red and kind of cool. I have a few (3) nice caps you can have but I think they are black. Will check today. They are the tall variety like a spray paint can top.
     
  5. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    #5 John Corbani, Aug 24, 2008
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2008
    I looked but nothing like my old ones. Gotti has gone through a number of owners and styles change. Thanks for the tip though. My caps are about 1/4" thick with 4 retaining tabs on the back. Maybe 5/8" thick including tabs. Molded from black plastic with the logo set in the top.

    Dave and Pietro, thanks for the tips. I will keep working on this.
    John
     
  6. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    Nov 3, 2003
    1,813
    Ohio
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    Dave Meredith
    John - I assume that you have already found this site: http://www.gbsalpine.com/wheel/gotti/eng/g_acc.html ?

    In my case, I wanted Prancing Horse center caps for my Gotti wheels, and as you can see above, all that they offer are Gotti caps.

    So I did some "hardware store" engineering and made my own using common Ferrari caps.

    Go to my website: http://groups.msn.com/Ferrari308GTSi/1980ferrari308gtsi.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=485

    and then hit "Next" to bring up the next couple of pictures in the sequence.

    Hope this helps - Cheers - DM
     
  7. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    #7 John Corbani, Aug 25, 2008
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2008
    Dave,
    Lots of good ideas there. Car looks GOOD with those wheels. Nice sequence of pictures and lots of detail. Thanks.
    John
     
  8. dinogts

    dinogts Formula 3
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Wow! If you click on the "home" link that appears when you go to the gbsalpine website thoughtfully provided by dave80gtsi listed above, you are taken to a cool page featuring the Renault Alpine 110 - a car that Dino owners like me would love to have sitting in their garages alongside their Dinos. Bravo, Dave!!!

    Mark
     
  9. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    Nov 3, 2003
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    Dave Meredith
    #9 dave80gtsi, Sep 10, 2008
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2008
    Not knowing Renaults, is that the same car as is currently offered in eBay auction no. 140264587640 ?

    (John - Apologies for the off-topic detour of your thread - perhaps we should instead start a new "Renault" thread?)

    Cheers - DM
     
  10. dinogts

    dinogts Formula 3
    Owner Rossa Subscribed


    No, that one on eBay is the Alpine 110's rather ugly younger sibling.

    Mark
     

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