Holden Center Caps for Camaro 20s

[oesman]

I recently purchased some OEM Camaro staggered 20s from another member. They came without center caps and after some research I found that everyone seems to run Pontiac caps from the Solstice which fit the Camaro wheels. I like Holden badges on my car personally so I wasn't thrilled about the idea of running Pontiac center caps as it wouldn't match the rest of my car. After research into blank caps and coming up with nothing concrete I decided to improvise.

I took the Holden center caps from my sport package 19s and sized up the Holden logo. Turns out it's exactly the diameter of the 20s center cap. I also discovered you can pry out the center logo with a little force it snaps right out and you wind up with a neat round logo that fits perfectly in the 20's center cap hole. I decided to find a way to attach the logos to the Solstice center caps. Below are the steps I took and the final result.

1. Acquire some Holden center caps if you don't already have them. They look like this and Crazy Paul sold me my last set:



2. Use moderate force to carefully pry out the middle logos. I found I had two types of caps (I've made separate orders, last was through Crazy Paul) and two of them were very easy to remove, there were little tabs you press from the back and the middle logo pops right out. The other two were different and took a bit more prying force as it had pegs instead of clips. I imagine one type was genuine OEM and the other some kind of knock off, either way the middle logos looked the same to me with the exception of the peg type being a hair thicker than the other.

3. Acquire some Pontiac Solstice center caps (GM # 9596881), Pace has them, but I found it's quicker and cheaper to just get them from GM directly. My local dealer had them for like $8/ea while pace was $6, but Pace charges IMO crazy shipping costs. Alternatively you can get Camaro center caps, they may be easier to get, it doesn't matter which you buy, I looked at both of them and they're identical for the purpose of this DIY. The Solstice ones look like this:



4. Now you need to remove the metal logo from the Solstice (or Camaro) center caps. The metal logo is basically just crimped over the plastic, like an old time milk bottle top. I used a multi-tool to pry it up:



5. Work your way around the logo until it falls right off:



6. Now we need to slim down the plastic and remove as much of the doming as you can, because the Holden logo is flat and not domed. Furthermore roughing up the surface will improve bonding for our epoxy:



7. Do the same with the back of the Holden logo to remove the clips/pegs and to rough up the surface to improve epoxy bonding. Here is the final result:



8. Now we grab our quick set epoxy, I used 60 second set epoxy. Note it will set in ~60 seconds so if you fail to bond the surface you'll wind up with epoxy all over your surface that you'll have to scrape off, so don't take too much time. Just squeeze out an even amount of both sides of the epoxy and mix it really quickly and spread it over the surface of the remains of the Solstice center cap. Then just plop the Holden logo on it, turn it over and center it. Apply a little pressure and 60 seconds later it's set:



9. Here are some photos of the finished product:





Notes: The more you remove from the back of the holden logo and the front of the plastic remains of the solstice cap, the more flush the logo will be after installation. Don't take too much off though.

[-Ray-]

Great job!

[Crazy Paul]

2.I found I had two types of caps (I've made separate orders, last was through Crazy Paul) and two of them were very easy to remove, there were little tabs you press from the back and the middle logo pops right out. The other two were different and took a bit more prying force as it had pegs instead of clips. I imagine one type was genuine OEM and the other some kind of knock off, either way the middle logos looked the same to me with the exception of the peg type being a hair thicker than the other.

Both types you mentioned are genuine Holden.
The original type had 3 or 4 round pins glued into the base.
Then a new type came out with rectangular pins that just press out.

[GingerBeard Man]

holy shit, nice DIY

[oesman]

Great job!

Thanks Ray!

Both types you mentioned are genuine Holden.
The original type had 3 or 4 round pins glued into the base.
Then a new type came out with rectangular pins that just press out.

Ah makes sense and I wasn't implying that yours weren't genuine, thank you for letting me know though. I didn't realize they had two types.

holy shit, nice DIY

Thanks!

[LDM]

Nice job, they look factory. Good write up as well. I had the opposite issue of wanting to use Pontiac center caps with my HSV wheels. Fortunately for me, my situation had a much easier fix than what you came up with here.