Putting a Toyota Emblem on an Aftermarket Wheel

The wheels came with a centre cap of their own, and the owner had already bought the Toyota emblem he wanted to see there instead. What he did not have was any way to join the two. One manufacturer's wheel, another manufacturer's badge, and nothing made to connect them, because nobody manufactures a part for a combination that one person chose. That is usually where a job like this stops.

Step 1: the cap that came with the wheels

This is the cap that came with the wheels. It is a perfectly good part, moulded with the wheel maker's own name across the face, and there is nothing wrong with it except that it was not what the owner wanted to look at every time he walked past the vehicle.

Step 2: three parts instead of one

The emblem is a separate part the owner bought himself, a flat disc meant for a different wheel entirely. The cap it now had to live in was never designed to hold one. What was missing was the piece in between, so that is the piece we made: a printed adapter that drops into the original cap ring and holds the emblem flush and central instead of loose in the opening. The outer ring and the emblem are both his. Only the middle is ours.

Step 3: assembled

Together they read as one part. The adapter holds the emblem at the right depth, and the concentric finish on the printed surface catches the light in a way that suits the wheel rather than fighting it.

Step 4: on the wheel

Bolted back onto the wheel it does the thing the customer asked for: it looks like it was always meant to be there. Nothing about the wheel had to be modified, and the original cap ring is still doing its job.

If the part you want does not exist

This is a small job, and a good example of a common one: the owner already had both ends of the problem in his hands, and what was missing was the part that joins them. Nobody manufactures that part, because the market for it is one person. That is exactly what printing to order is for. Tell us what you are trying to finish off and we will work out whether it can be made.