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HELP Please ! Center Cap Removal on Reatta

Budensor

By Budensor
in Buick Reatta

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harry yarnell 10,000+ Points

harry yarnell

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Posted

I have no problem calling them 'center caps', but I'm old and hub cap is a term that is fitting to the days when you had dog dish hubcaps; 'full' hubcaps (aka. wheel covers) were a snazzed up option.

Dust caps were the little caps you tapped on the end of the spindle/race to protect the outer wheel bearing.

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farnelle 2,500+ Points

farnelle

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I have never had a problem using a small screwdriver.  I take a small rag and put against the wheel and then pry gently on the center cap.  Pull up just a little and use your finger to do the rest.  If you are going in for balance, rotate, or new tires, take them off and put them back on yourself. 

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Budensor 1,000+ Points

Budensor

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15 hours ago, farnelle said:

I have never had a problem using a small screwdriver.  I take a small rag and put against the wheel and then pry gently on the center cap.  Pull up just a little and use your finger to do the rest.  If you are going in for balance, rotate, or new tires, take them off and put them back on yourself. 

Y

 

15 hours ago, farnelle said:

I have never had a problem using a small screwdriver.  I take a small rag and put against the wheel and then pry gently on the center cap.  Pull up just a little and use your finger to do the rest.  If you are going in for balance, rotate, or new tires, take them off and put them back on yourself. 

Yes, that's what I did but I didn't use a rag when I put New tires on it.  ( This car still had the Original Goodyear GT4 tires on it.)  It has one Bad Center Cap and a guy came up to us the other weekend at Cruise In said He had 2 Reatta's one coupe and one Convertible both 1990's and said he had a few NOS parts at home and one of them was a NEW NOS Center Cap. So I met up with him last weeks and bought it and some other items he had. Great luck. 

Thanks

for your message 

Bud

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ChrisWhewell 2,500+ Points

ChrisWhewell

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Center caps won't come off, if you synchronize them.  You have to get all the R's to be pointing the same direction, such as all four of them in standard, upright position for the letter R.   This prevents destructive interference from wobbling one or more of the caps off.   Sometimes this means removing one or more of the wheels from a hub and locating it on the lug nuts right, so that the center cap can be installed with the R straight up.  ok just kidding, gotcha

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Ronnie 25,000+ Points

Ronnie

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Posted (edited)
On 10/2/2016 at 6:23 PM, Budensor said:

OK GUYS, 

 

We're New Owner's of a 1990 Buick Reatta Convertible 22K. Need Help ? On the Best Way to Remove the Center Caps with out Damaging any thing. ? What Tool is best ? it seems a screwdriver will damage things. 

 

Thanks

Budensor

 

 

Knowing what a problem this can be, I thought about it for several days. Finally I decided to turn it over to some of my friends at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

 

They are a group of scientists, engineers and a nuclear phyisist.  When they aren't designing better atomic weapons, and working on other top secret projects, they like to take on projects that solve problems in our everyday lives. I laid out the goal of my project, which was primarily to remove the center cap from a stock Reatta wheel without scratching it.. Our efforts would be focused on developing a tool that would accomplish our goal of getting the center cap off - and not exceed a budget of $25,000 in development costs..

 

Their first thoughts was that our budget seemed to be a little low. Luckily the project manager said he had about $900,000 left over in his budget for the peanut butter analyses project they did when they were selecting the best peanut butter to use in their lunch room. So we had the money to do it!!!

 

ORNL has some of the fastest supercomputers in the world and they were at our disposal. All the scientist on our team got right on the computers to develop several scenarios of how we should approach this problem of finding a tool that would not scratch the center cap when removing it from the wheel.

 

While they were doing their high tech research, I brought in a wheel with a center cap installed so they could see the problem they were up against. Seeing some "foreign matter" on the wheel (dirt) the team requested a "Waste Removal Specialist" (Janitor) to clean it off.

 

When the janitor examined the wheel before cleaning he asked what we were doing with it. I explained to him that we were using the brainpower of our scientific team and the supercomputers to design a tool that would remove the center cap without scratching it. To the amazement of me and the ORNL team he reached out with one of the tools he had brought with him and popped the center cap off - without any chance of scratching the center cap or it hitting the floor  (see photos)

 

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" and applause rang out from our team of scientist and engineers - who leaped forward to take credit for developing the new center cap removal tool - hoping that it would get them a bigger raise in their salary.

 

As me and the Janitor carried the tire back out to the car we could still hear them arguing about who had came up with the idea that solved the problem within budget. The last I heard the Waste Removal Specialist had been promoted to a Project Manager. who is in charge of developing this new tool for the consumer market. When all the safety testing and red tape is taken care of you may see this new tool listed in The Reatta Store - probably about five years from now. :)

 

This isn't intended to offend anyone. Just having a little fun.

 

 

SAM_3374.JPG

SAM_3375.JPG

Edited by Ronnie (see edit history)
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Budensor 1,000+ Points

Budensor

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On October 13, 2016 at 9:47 AM, Ronnie said:

 

Knowing what a problem this can be, I thought about it for several days. Finally I decided to turn it over to some of my friends at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

 

They are a group of scientists, engineers and a nuclear phyisist.  When they aren't designing better atomic weapons, and working on other top secret projects, they like to take on projects that solve problems in our everyday lives. I laid out the goal of my project, which was primarily to remove the center cap from a stock Reatta wheel without scratching it.. Our efforts would be focused on developing a tool that would accomplish our goal of getting the center cap off - and not exceed a budget of $25,000 in development costs..

 

Their first thoughts was that our budget seemed to be a little low. Luckily the project manager said he had about $900,000 left over in his budget for the peanut butter analyses project they did when they were selecting the best peanut butter to use in their lunch room. So we had the money to do it!!!

 

ORNL has some of the fastest supercomputers in the world and they were at our disposal. All the scientist on our team got right on the computers to develop several scenarios of how we should approach this problem of finding a tool that would not scratch the center cap when removing it from the wheel.

 

While they were doing their high tech research, I brought in a wheel with a center cap installed so they could see the problem they were up against. Seeing some "foreign matter" on the wheel (dirt) the team requested a "Waste Removal Specialist" (Janitor) to clean it off.

 

When the janitor examined the wheel before cleaning he asked what we were doing with it. I explained to him that we were using the brainpower of our scientific team and the supercomputers to design a tool that would remove the center cap without scratching it. To the amazement of me and the ORNL team he reached out with one of the tools he had brought with him and popped the center cap off - without any chance of scratching the center cap or it hitting the floor  (see photos)

 

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" and applause rang out from our team of scientist and engineers - who leaped forward to take credit for developing the new center cap removal tool - hoping that it would get them a bigger raise in their salary.

 

As me and the Janitor carried the tire back out to the car we could still hear them arguing about who had came up with the idea that solved the problem within budget. The last I heard the Waste Removal Specialist had been promoted to a Project Manager. who is in charge of developing this new tool for the consumer market. When all the safety testing and red tape is taken care of you may see this new tool listed in The Reatta Store - probably about five years from now. :)

 

This isn't intended to offend anyone. Just having a little fun.

 

 

SAM_3374.JPG

SAM_3375.JPG

I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS ! ! ! I've got a Suction Dent Removal Tool I Think Will Work Good ? 

Thanks

Bud

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Ronnie 25,000+ Points

Ronnie

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1 hour ago, Budensor said:

I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS ! ! ! I've got a Suction Dent Removal Tool I Think Will Work Good ? 

Thanks

Bud

Possibly but I don't know. Everything I wrote was all in jest. The photos below shows the center cap that is under the plunger in my previous photos. As you can see - with all the holes in the center cap there is no way the plunger could stick to it. The photos were taken with the wheel laying on the floor and then I flipped them before posting to make them look like the wheel was on the wall. Just having some fun. I really hope you weren't offend by my post.

 

SAM_2229.JPG

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Budensor 1,000+ Points

Budensor

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15 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Possibly but I don't know. Everything I wrote was all in jest. The photos below shows the center cap that is under the plunger in my previous photos. As you can see - with all the holes in the center cap there is no way the plunger could stick to it. The photos were taken with the wheel laying on the floor and then I flipped them before posting to make them look like the wheel was on the wall. Just having some fun. I really hope you weren't offend by my post.

 

SAM_2229.JPG

Ronnie,

I was not offend by your post I Really like it and enjoyed it as I read it and I LOL at the end even read a overview to my wife. She even asked if that was for real and she would doubt that from Our Government ! 

Thanks

Bud

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