Do you have pictures of your WheelSkins cover? I had one on my last car (96 Nissan SE-R) and loved it. My main concern in getting one for the MINI is it fitting properly around my 2 spoke's thumb bumps.

I'm going crazy from the skinny wheel & need a fix soon. I can justify an inexpensive leather cover to the wife but can't justify one of the overly expensive JCW wheels.

 

Here:


Stretches *perfectly* around the thumb bumps. The only thing some folks don't like is how it goes around the spokes. I'm fine with that, personally. MinSpeed has a wrap that is much more involved to lace on, but that also covers the spokes and goes under the silver spoke panels - looks factory, but is more work.

 

Wow, you paid a LOT for your leather. I paid $12.00 for a 3 sq ft hide. Lovely soft lambskin too. I've done a few wheels and yes it is labour intensive, especially when you two-tone the leather as I did. But it is very much worth it when you see the finished product.

 

Thanks for the Pic. It looks good to me & I don't mind where it overlaps the spokes.

 

Nice chrono look Paul!
If you have minispeed do it you have to send you wheel to them, though not often I sometimes need that to drive. I'm not much on sewing. I know I would sew my hand to the wheel (upside I guess is that I'd never loose grip during a hard twisty). With the wheelskin do you still have to sew it yourself or does it slip on?

 

The Wheelskin laces on also - but isn't hard as long as you're meticulous - oops, that disqualifies you, Chuck.

It uses a nice blunt needle - no chance of sewing yourself to the wheel with it... though you could still put an eye out if you tried.

The things I've learned by doing this a few times now:
1) Making sure that you don't miss any holes (it's pre-punched) is important. It's easy to stay in sync EXCEPT when you're going around the spokes. What I do is put a little piece of painter's tape ever 10 holes on both sides (in matching spots), and take it off as I go around - good sanity check - that way when I go around a spoke I can match up the holes on the other side and make sure I didn't mis-count holes on the back side of the spoke. Otherwise you might find that you're off by one hole - at the VERY END.
2) The edge of the Wheelskin is reinforced with a cord, rolled and glued. The adhesive tends to "flake" out and gravity pulls it into the lowest part of the skin as you're stitching... So, as I'm doing it, I periodically turn the wheel and clean out any stuff that's gotten in there. Otherwise you end up with little lumps under the skin.

But, knowing these two things in advance, I can lace one on now in less than an hour. Probably 40 minutes.

 

Pete offered to send me a completed wheel and have me send him my old one once switched out, eliminating any down time.

This appears to be another example of that non-revenue generating genious I hear so much about. Great idea


Holy Shnikies! It takes me that long to get it out of the plastic

 

I installed Wheelskins on my previous two cars and was very happy with the product. Lacing on was a fairly tedious task. Make sure that you pull very tight after threading each stitch. After a while of so much pulling, the thread starts to cut at your hands so it helps to use gloves.

 

I used a leather scrap rolled into a tube around one finger and taped together (courtesy of 03Indigo). I liked this better than gloves because I didn't loose any feel. On the Minspeed wheel, there are no precut holes, so your having to push the needle through the edge stitching hole if you can find it. My guess is this is quite a bit more effort than one that's preholed. Unless they were really heavy, gloves wouldn't cut it. The leather scrap was ideal for this as well.

 

rkw's gloves were to protect your hands from lacing cuts when you pull it tight - yeah, the Wheelskin is pre-punched, which makes it INFINITELY easier... you don't need a thimble... wow, I'm pretty confident I'll NEVER do a MinSpeed cover if it isn't pre-punched... if I did, I'd get an awl and punch matching holes all the way around before I started lacing...

Ka-ching - more non-revenue-generating genius.

 

I bought a wheelskins cover for my clubman and it doesn't fit.
It took me three tries to get it to stay lined up to the spokes (it is red / black) but it creeps forward as you install it. After the third try, as I got to the end, there was about 3/4" to 1" extra (front & back - I had been very careful to do the eyelets correctly, so there's this big bunched up section.
I'm NOT a happy camper.

 

Hmmm... I've done three different wheelskins on my car (changing colors) and never had this problem... I wonder if you either somehow got one that was cut to the wrong size, or if there's some variation in wheel dimensions between the R52 and the Clubman...

 

When I bought it on their website, I used their "configurator" and it came up with size "C" 14 1/2" diameter, which is what the box said - I also wonder if, somehow, the clubman S has a different wheel dia.

 

Minspeed

 

I will bet that's your problem. I've put wheelskins on a 2 VW's, a Toyota, a Nissan, 2 Hondas, a Ford and an Acura & they were always a good fit. Now they were usually a little loose for the first 2-3 weeks while the leather snugged up. But never an inch of bunching.

Give them a call, they are good people & rely on word of mouth so I'll bet they would be willing to help you out.

 

Yeah... when you slip the cover onto the wheel before you begin stitching, it should be SNUG... effectively you should have to stretch the cover a bit just to get it on the wheel in the first place... if it was loose on the wheel, then you definitely have the wrong diameter. If it was snug around the wheel before you began stitching, then i dunno...