Hockey puck crest alignment

[lexatola]

I just purchased a nice original leather 914 wheel which came with a nice original hockey puck. The only problem is that the crest will not align to the bottom seam on the leather wrap on the wheel. I'm guessing that it worked fine on some other wheel in the past but not on the 914 wheel. Is this normal? Do I need to take apart the puck and adjust the postioning of the leather center pad? If so how is that best done without doing damage to the plastic or the metal ring? I tried prying the tabs out but the ring does not want to budge. Do the tabs need to be really bent out far?

Please help as I will never be able to drive straight down the road with a cockeyed hockey puck....

Thanks as always,

Best,

Alex

[Bullethead]

Alex, yes it's as simple as that. I recently had the chrome re-done on the ring and made the mistake of not checking the leather's alignment. The tabs are pretty stiff but just plier them straight and push them out. Took a couple of test fits to the wheel before I had the shield right. Put the puck on the wheel, rotate leather to position, then remove and bend the tabs down.

Good luck!

[lexatola]

Would there be any glue involved in holding down the pad? Just seems to not want to budge - I can apply more force but don't want to make a mistake as the leather is in really nice shape.

Best,

Alex

[lexatola]

Okay - I got it. It just required an uncomfortable amount of force!

Looks great now!

Best,

Alex

[larwik]

Alex and Russ .....My leather center crest-pad needs more "padding"...it's caving in and I tried to take it off but "chickened-out" after a few tries..with your encuragement I'll try again...if I get it off, do I have access to the underside to slide-in a small piece of foam (or equal) to improve the padding under the leather crest?...or is it "incapsulated"?...Thanks'.../ Lars...

P.S...I have "borrowed" the picture below from somewhere...my crest-pad is caved-in much more than this...

[lexatola]

Hi Lars - I didn't remove the ring entirely so I don't have first hand experience on what it looks like under there. From pictures I've seen however I don't think it should be a problem. The trick in getting the ring off is that metal hardware tha connects the puck to the wheel should all come off just to give your room to work. Then the tabs need to be pryed upwards. Once I pryed them up I then used some small electrical plyers to straigten them up as much as possible. After that it required more force than I initially thought would be necessary to work each tab back through the plastic. I think the main thing is to not over torque the plastic during this process.

That's all know - hope it helps!

Best,

Alex

[Soterik]

Alex and Russ .....My leather center crest-pad needs more "padding"...it's caving in and I tried to take it off but "chickened-out" after a few tries..with your encuragement I'll try again...if I get it off, do I have access to the underside to slide-in a small piece of foam (or equal) to improve the padding under the leather crest?...or is it "encapsulated"?...Thanks'.../ Lars...

P.S...I have "borrowed" the picture below from somewhere...my crest-pad is caved-in much more than this...

Lars,

Yes, once you force the ring off, the leather will probably be loose and you should be able to put a thin layer of foam in underneath. I've seen several types of layers there. One was separate from the leather, and another had a thicker stiffer foam glued to the leather. You might have a dished piece of metal in there as well and you simply fill the dish with foam. Sounds like a nice way to spend an evening!

Note that I will have new leather pieces at the LA lit show if you want to try something new.

Eric

[larwik]

Thanks' guys...will give it a go this weekend.../ Lars...