Vehicle wheel with ornamental plastic overlay

A method of making a composite styled wheel of the type having a metallic portion comprising a wheel mounting disc and a rim secured to said disc and adapted to receive a tire thereon and a plastic portion comprising an ornamental overlay body disposed adjacent and covering at least a part of the outboard face of said metallic portion, said body being permanently affixed to said metallic portion and being made of a elastomeric material, the outboard face of said body being exposed to view from the outboard side of said wheel and having a decorative surface spaced axially of the wheel outboard from the covered part of the outboard face of said metallic portion, said outboard face of said body having a contour differing from the contour of the covered part of the outboard face of said metallic portion and adapted to provide decorative contour over at least part of the metallic portion of said wheel, and having hub cap retainer means provided in said body on the outboard face thereof adapted to yieldably engage and retain attachment prongs of a hub cap adapted for removable attachment to the outboard face of said body, said hub cap retainer meanscomprising a plurality of circumferentially spaced blind cavity means each having an opening at an outboard exterior surface of said body adapted for registration individually with an associated one of the hub cap prongs, said cavity means having juxtaposed entrance edges at said exterior face defining said opening and spaced apart a distance less than a maximum transverse dimension of said prongs to provide an interference fit therewith, said cavity means having interior wall surfaces defining an undercut realtionship relative to said cavity opening edges, said cavity entrance edges and the cotiguous wall surfaces of said cavity being yieldable so as to spread apart to permit insertion of said prongs and then return to a spring keeper relationship once the associatd prong reaches a seated position in said cavity matching the fully seated position of the hub cap on said body, said method comprising the steps of:

• (1) molding said decorative body against said wheel outboard face from a urethane reaction mixture injected into a mold including the wheel outboard face and core protrusions adapted to serve as cores to define said blind cavity means, and
• (2) just prior to the complete cooling and curing of said urethane mixture and while the same is soft, removing the wheel with the body adhered thereto from the mold while concurrently stripping the core protrusion from the body.