Hello, I have kind of been slacking and not posting much on this site for a while now. I just need your help and input on my wheels on my '91 Camaro. I currently have Boyds 3 spoke 16" wheels on my car. I need to get the wheels of but cannot remove the beuty cap. I want to do so in a fasion that will not damage the wheels as they are worth some money as they are the first Boyd wheels. The center cap has a three inch bolt on it but is it just for display or should I spin it with a wrench or socket. Thanks guys

Mitchell de Moor

 

hay man, i did a little research for you. i found one on ebay that is not the same but similar. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BOYDS...Q5fAccessories
i would email this guy. but to me it looks like it will pop off. there are no pics of the back side, so i cant say for sure.

 

i searched around and dont find anything on the net. those must be pretty old because even his site does not show them. they are probably worth some bucks.
there is a product called :break free". it is used on guns and you get it from a gun store. it literally soaks into metal. its great stuff. try some in case there is some rust UNDER the cap where it connects to the rim.

 

Thanks for the help I will look into it. I was out in the garage yesterday for a good half an hour, and a good 25 minutes today it wont pop off. It is people like you who make the world a better place thanks for your research.

Mitchell de Moor
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Well they are really old. Boyd Coddington way the first of hot rodders to make his own wheels. Nowadays if you see the shows on telivison you see all the hot rodders making there own wheels that because of Boyd. these wheels are from the late '80's or early 90's.

As far as a gun shop I live in the middle east. So there arnt really any gun shops near me. And hold the jokes aside I live in Dubai and its not the middle east that gets plastered all over the net as being a bad place.

 

By looking at the pic, my guess is that it is like the stock wheels. The "nut" is for appearance only & not really a nut that unscrews.

I notice that around the base of the 3 "spokes" there is a large circle "groove". Are you certain that whole center section doesn't "pop off"? Just a press fit? See my pic..That whole section should pop off, like on the stock 91/92 wheels.

If so, trying to turn that "nut" will only break the center section & destroy it.

 

Ya I know you would think It just pops off. I think it used to but since it hasnt been ****ed with in years it is just stuck on. I have tried hammering a screw driver and feeler gauge in ther but all that did was **** the wheels up. I am at a total loss and don't know what to do. I just can't get them mother ****ers off without totally destroying the ****ing center cap.

Mitchell de Moor

 

I'm going to say that you need to turn the center, like a knockoff wheel. But you should probably have a big tool from Boyds to do it. Since it doesn't have a visible screw and doesn't pop off it has to turn and unscrew.

 

Thank you I didn't get a screw driver as the car was shipped from Japan. The previous owner is somewhere in Japan now. I thought that may be the case and it came with the tool to take them off. I could get a 3" wrench or socket and try but I am really scared as the center caps alone are going for $200 on ebay.

 

then you may want to check with the sellers on ebay and see if they are threaded on the back

 

You could try one of those rubber type wrenches. I bought two piece Cobalt set from Lowe's......

 

Here is pic of the Northern unit.....

 

Thanks a lot man but do you think it's a spin off? Do you know if there is a site I could order that from because I live in a country were tools are hard to get.

 

I saw a chevy impala with very similar center caps a few days ago. they may go on the same same way. you may want to research them a little.

 

Should just "pop-off" like the factory wheels. If they were knock-off styled wheels the center would not be that large. They don't have the bolt or bolts to hold the center on like Centerline wheels so it should just pop off!

 

It's got to turn off. There are no slots to pry in and no exposed screws to unscrew. All it has is that big nut shape in the middle ... why do you suppose they put that big nut shape in the middle! I don't really see why this is such a problem. If you can find a scrap of plywood big enough to cut out a hole that shape and an old rag to cushion it with, you can make a wrench to unscrew that cap. It can't really be all that hard.

 

If I were you I'd mount them on the wall and watch the value go up after you get them off lol...

I realize I'm being captain obvious here, but did you try contacting whats left of his company? his son's took it over, here's their contact page....

http://sonsofboyd.com/sonsofboyd/media.html

there's also the number of links listed as "friends of boyd" which might offer help, esp. good-guys.com

 

I have sent an email to info@sonsofboyd.com and am waiting for a reply. I have not sent an email to Good Guys and will look into that. As for keeping the wheels I know what you meat I am going to take them off and put thm in storage and put some 17" Rocket wheels on my 'Maro.

 

So did you figure out which way they come off? Just wondering in case I run across this again.

 

Take your car to the nearest ghetto. I'm sure there is someone there that can show you how to get them off.

 

It's not a knockoff wheel it's a turn off cover for the lug nuts. When you unscrew the cover the lug nuts will be inside. And the cover will be as big as in stephens pic with the arrows.
This reminds me of that old ... "how many (insert derogatory name here) does it take to unscrew a lightbulb", joke.

 

rightio, these are acually not that uncommon. they do make a cap wrench to fit that cover nut. the bmw's bbs wheels came with a similar style nut capper thingy, take a look
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BBS-C...06118003r16790

 

I really do appreciate all of the constructive criticism from the "peanut gallery". Boy, ask 1 question and get insulted for no apparent reason!

 

Well I see this is getting to be a popular thread. Just an update I emailed Chris Coddington and he told me that there is a rubber o-ring behind it. So I bought a channel lock that would hook up to the 3" bolt shaped buety cap. It popped off no problem. I put some mesh stuff around the cap first so I would not scratch the billet (those ****ers scratch easily). The other problem I bumped into was I now found out that there is wheel locks on all the wheels. I don't have a key to get it off. I posted a thread about that somewhere else in this forum and most people agreed that a 12 point socket would get it off. So I will get a 21mm 12pt. Socket and hammer it on and put my socket wrench on with my big pole for more torque. Wish me lick.

 

I don't really see a 12 point socket getting off a wheel lock. It will almost certainly just spin around it and do nothing considering that if the wheels haven't been off in a while, the lugs are probably stuck on there pretty good. You need to get a lug nut remover (such as http://www.top-downsolutions.com/pro...2a7bf27680b6de) to get it off. They work best with and impact wrench, but you should be able to use it with a breaker bar too.

 

wheel locks are a slight slow down and wheel removal, all you need is a socket that you can hammer over the wheel lock and then use your trusty wrench and torque away. I've removed all the wheel nuts on a buddy's car who said it was safe from wheel theft, took me 3 min.

 

When I lost the key to my locking lugs I just used a set of vice grips. Tightened it up and clamped onto the lug nut and turned it off.

 

It really comes down to how tight the lugs are on there. If you maintain your wheels, taking lugs off is a breeze. However, when the wheel hasn't been removed for a long time and corrodes, there is no way you are going to get a lug off with anything short of a ratchet handle and pipe or strong impact.

I've sat there with an impact rated at 800 ft pounds for a good 15 minutes trying to get one wheel off. Even had to use a 4 foot bar to get some off (ended up breaking a bolt style lug in half on a Mercedes).