Roger Zimmermann

I do hope too!

It took about 3 hours to do...OK, it's the first one, I had to fabricate a jig and I must improve the milling process to have less manual work after the milling. I expected to have no more than 5 minutes to do one fin; I can forget this optimistic value. "Only" 239 to go! (there are 40 fins per wheelcover)

Very nice job too!

Yesterday, I could finish the base wheelcovers. They are polished, ready to be chromed. Only the fins are missing. Now, I have to begin them...

Saturday, I got a 1958 Hydramatic to overhaul. Tomorrow, another '58 Hydramatic is coming for an overhaul; it will be the 5th Hydramatic transmission I'm overhauling this year...Plus an engine from a 1960 Cad which need some work. All these parallel activities are distracting me from the wheelcovers. Finally, I found a reasonable solution for the fins. I will do slots on the wheelcovers; the fins will have a tail which will enter the slots. This method will simplify the assembly but will add some work to manufacture the fins; there is no free lunch as somebody said! After trying to mill the slots on a test wheelcover, I realized that I needed better tools. Fortunately, some weeks ago I had a discussion with a Swiss member of our Cadillac Club. It happens that this man has a factory for dental tools. I could order from him some cutting discs covered with diamond. This morning, I could do the slots to the first wheelcover. The wheelcover is held with contact cement on a modified die. The whole is installed on a divider tool; fortunately, I have a divider disc with 40 positions! The third picture is showing a cover just removed from the form; there are still burrs which will be removed prior to the fins installation. Only 5 to go!

Thank you Paul! When the wheelcover will be finished, it will be more interesting; up to now, one does not really see what the end should be...

Thank you for the nice comments keiser31! This morning, I got the news that I will have another Hydramatic transmission to repair, therefore I rushed a little bit and just finished the last assembly. You may ask if I'm doing a 6-wheeler? No, no, but it's always nice to have spares. Not a single wheelcover is so far perfect, I will have some choice to do when the car is ready. And, what next? The fins? No, not yet: before I can start that last task, I have to do a device to assemble the covers on the wheels. Even by speaking politely with the wheelcovers, they will not jump at the wheels...

Paul, the world is small! Are you another one quiting the CLC forum because of the name's rule? I'm here for another reason as I decided to build a Mark II model and not a Cadillac one! Johan: nice work, congratulation.

That is the speed we are driving on freeways in Europe, sometimes a little bit faster!

The model will be painted and all chrome parts will be plated. You may have a look here: Model Makers—Roger Zimmermann you will see my 2 previous models.

Yesterday, I could assemble the first wheelcover with soft solder. The other ones are in the pipeline, they will probably be in the same shape at the end of the week. My estimate is that I'm at the middle of the wheelcover's saga. The fins will be an heavy task. I have various ideas how to do them and how to install them on the dish (no, not with screws!); nothing is definitive right now. One picture is with the flash, the other one without.

As the first try went well, I'm doing now the full serie of outer wheelcovers. As the picture is showing it, I have some plain sheet brass discs ready to be "stamped". On the left (and above), one prepared part; the hole in the middle prevents too much stress on the brass. In the middle, a "fresh" pressed brass part; you can see that the hole went larger. On the right, an almost finished part.

If you go in my public profile, you can see my cars in the "album".

Before I'm doing a new tool for the small hubcap (the center is not like it should), I did the dies for the outside parts. It went better than the forms for the hubcaps; it's simpler. This morning, I did the first sample with mixed results. However, after some rework, the form is acceptable. The outer part is a little bit thicker: 0.3mm. To do the rework, I cemented it with a contact cement on one of the dies. With this unortodox method, I could turn the outside and inside diameter as well as eliminate a small wrinkle. The last picture is showing the 2 parts pre-assembled. As more finish work is needed on both parts, it was just for fun.

What a good part can do! I had almost the same problem with my '56 Cadillac de Ville: gen lamp. A "guru" found some minor problems in the generator and fine tuned the regulator. However, at a price: about $ 400.00, but the problem is gone...

Yes, Scott. I'm amazed at the number; what will be that number when a "real" part will be under work like the frame or engine or body? Fortunately, the cold months, which are not far away, are more productive as I'm less distracted by my own old cars requiring maintenance and nice weather which I enjoy as much as I can.

Lou, I just saw that you anticipated my advise! What I loosed on the other forum is a gain here!

Ah! Lou! Nice to see you here! Sorry for the trouble you got at the CLC forum; I don't understand this lack of flexibility. Why don't you publish here the restoration work you are doing on your '56 Biarritz? I will have to rework the dies of the small hubcaps: if the first part went well, the other ones had inacceptable flaws...The wheelcovers will keep me busy for a long time!

Wow, so many countries are looking over my shoulder! Thank you for your patience too, you will need it as I'm rather slow!

It depends of the quality of the brass. Some is hard, some is soft. I suppose this properties is coming from the mix between cooper, zinc and maybe other metals. The brass I'm using now is of the soft quality; I tried to press it without heating and the process went well. The thickness is .2 mm (.008") The outer ring will be a little bit thicker, .3 mm. As I did for the Avanti wheelcovers, I will heat it, but I'm not yet that far! By the way, I noted that you are living in the UK...I have a very international audience!

Yesterday, I spent almost the whole afternoon to do the female form. When I had the impression I cannot improve it any more, I did a test with a small band of brass to see if the inside profile was more or less like the outer profile...I saw on the test part that a small rework was necessary, which was done this morning. Then, the great moment: how will the brass do between both parts? Well, I'm satisfied with the results. And I'm happy about my decision to do the dish in two part: on the picture below, you can see the first hubcap; the metal on the outside diameter is full of wrinkles. If I had a form for the whole wheelcover, I would have the same wrinkles. As my dies are brass, the wrinkles would imprint the brass, rendering the dies useless as well as the covers. Now, I can do the ouside tooling...

Now, it's the turn of the female form. It's the most difficult part of the tooling as it's almost impossible to measure and use "normal" tools. Most of the job is done with a hand held tool like shown on the picture. Of course, the tool is held with both hands (and with the minimal turning speed), but I my third hand was not available to held the camera! The part is far from finished...

Now that the valve covers are done, I'm beginning other covers: the wheelcovers. The cover itself will be done in 2 pieces: a small one, like a cheap hubcap and then the outer ring. Both will be welded together. However, I have to do first the forms to press the brass. Here are the first step for the hubcap. One picture is showing the form almost ready, the form is ready on the second picture. The next step will be to do the negative form, also in brass.

The second valve cover is ready. I'm glad it's over, I would not do a third one at any price! Which is the best one? Both have imperfections; all in all, I would say the first one is a little bit better than the other one. It's now time to have a look at the wheelcovers...

Thank you for all for your positive comments! The second valve cover is progressing slowly; I did a measure mistake by drilling the holes at each end too near from one side. Fortunately brass is a wonderful material and I could rescue the part by brazing a cap and drilling again. Oh! the error was not significant: 0.4 mm (0.016") but at this scale is almost catastrophic!