1994 Center Caps. why so expensive ? please help

[iratoyota]

I have a mint 1994 Camry V6 XLE with 51K miles. The center caps are peeling and look like crap. At Ira Toyota in Danvers,Ma new center caps cost $55.00 dollars per cap. Why are they so much for a piece of plastic ? Can anybody help me out with locating new caps at a better price. Thanks

[toyomoho]

Try a Google search, there used to outlets that just sold used hub caps.

[iratoyota]

thank you. ebay is hit or miss and usually pretty pricey for used stuff with defects

[eyeball96]

Repaint them urself! Isn't that difficult.

[rty]

They are expensive because dealers are expensive.

[cmjohnson]

Are they metallic silver like the rims?


They're easy to repaint.


Heck, send them to me and I'll do a professional repainting job on them for the cost of shipping.






I just repainted this center cap (badge removed) a few days ago. It's sitting on my rim for my spare,
which I had powdercoated a few weeks ago. It's not a perfect match, but it's close enough.

I COULD have just painted the rim myself, in this silver, which would result in a dead perfect match, but
powdercoat is tougher and will last longer than even good urethane two stage paint. I chose toughness
over an exact match.

And, no, you can't powdercoat the center caps because powdercoat is finished in an oven. It's a plastic
coating that has to be melted to finish it, at about 400 degrees. So it's only suitable for metals.


If you want, I'll reshoot your caps and rims, too, but I'll have to charge for the rims. They'll have to
be blasted clean and I've got to pay for that. It'll cost that, plus 20 bucks painting per rim, plus shipping.


CJ

[Mike Gerber]

"And, no, you can't powdercoat the center caps because powdercoat is finished in an oven. It's a plastic
coating that has to be melted to finish it, at about 400 degrees. So it's only suitable for metals."

Not only are the parts baked in an oven at 400 degrees, but the powder is applied to the parts while the parts are megneticly charged by having a probe attached to them. Can't do that to plastic either.

As for the original poster, I painted a couple of the center caps for my 94 4 cylinder XLE myself, after buying one from the dealer. I was very pleased with the results. I used Dupli-Color High Performance Wheel Coating in the Silver color. The part number is WP101 SILVER. It actually matched the wheels better than the one I bought form the dealer. You can get it at just about any auto parts store. I know Pep Boys carries it. Just scuff up the cap lightly with a scuffing pad, clean with alcohol and paint in several light coats, allowing about 10 minutes to dry slightly between coats.

Mike

[cmjohnson]

You are correct about the electrostatic aspect of powdercoat and the need for the item to be electrically
conductive, but I didn't want to make things too complicated with an explanation of that. I thought it
was sufficient to note that the caps aren't a candidate for powdercoating.


Duplicolor is fine for touchups, but a good urethane paint job will last as long as the original job did, or
longer. And I have yet to find any spray paint that holds up for more than maybe a year in the sun
before it starts to turn to garbage.




CJ

[iratoyota]

Originally Posted by cmjohnson

Are they metallic silver like the rims?


They're easy to repaint.


Heck, send them to me and I'll do a professional repainting job on them for the cost of shipping.






I just repainted this center cap (badge removed) a few days ago. It's sitting on my rim for my spare,
which I had powdercoated a few weeks ago. It's not a perfect match, but it's close enough.

I COULD have just painted the rim myself, in this silver, which would result in a dead perfect match, but
powdercoat is tougher and will last longer than even good urethane two stage paint. I chose toughness
over an exact match.

And, no, you can't powdercoat the center caps because powdercoat is finished in an oven. It's a plastic
coating that has to be melted to finish it, at about 400 degrees. So it's only suitable for metals.


If you want, I'll reshoot your caps and rims, too, but I'll have to charge for the rims. They'll have to
be blasted clean and I've got to pay for that. It'll cost that, plus 20 bucks painting per rim, plus shipping.


CJ

Thank you very much for the offer. I would love to have you do the work. Your stuff looks awesome !