Land Rover spare tire cover

Well, not quite what you think. I got tired of all the duff falling from the trees and sitting in my wheel getting wet and staining the paint. I've seen where other peoples had made wooden covers for their wheels so I figured I could too.

   First I measured the rim, I have 16" rims and they need 18" to cover the OD. I then searched for some wood scrap and found some plywood that was over 18". Then I needed to make a  18" circle. Probably could have done it with a pencil and string but I looked around for something I might have that was the right size. Looked at bucket lids and garbage can lids and finally found a supersized flying disc from the 80's.

   I used this to draw the circle around;

Then I cut it out with my jigsaw;

And used the router to make the top edge rounded;

I spent a little time sanding it all down to make nice...:

It didn't get rid of all the oil but it made it smoother;

Then a test fit on the spare;

The test fit included measurements for where to drill holes for my "J" hooks, these were intended to be my hold downs, since they work for batteries they should work for this. I found that I needed to drill my hole 7" from the edge. Once drilled the j hook needed 2 nuts and washers to work as I needed.

Test fitting with the 1 j hook;

The j hook was too long but it was holding well and lined up good so I cut it down and added the second j hook. A quick test showed the 7" location worked well. with the J hook I welded the bottom nut to the bottom of the threads so the hook would not pull thru. I left about 2" above the top wingnut so I could manipulate the hook when installing and removing the cover.

Then I painted it.

And painted;

Lots of coats, and once dry installed it.

Now I have a compartment under the cover for something like rope. I'll see in the long run if it works out. Who knows if it will hold up under the weather.