Importance

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Abstract

A wheel cover for a vehicle with a wheel secured to the vehicle by lug nuts, the wheel cover including a molded wheel cover base adapted to aesthetically cover the vehicle wheel, and a plurality of retainers attached to the wheel cover base. The wheel cover base includes a plurality of protrusions located in positions corresponding to the lug nuts and cylindrically-shaped walls extending around each protrusion creating a cup-shaped space for receiving the retainers. The retainers include a central body sized to fit in the space and a plurality of fingers extending from the central body for frictionally engaging lug nuts, the central body and fingers each including barbs for engaging the protrusions and the concentric walls so that the retainers are permanently retained to the wheel cover base once pressed into the space, the barbs creating an opposing arrangement of attachment in the space that creates a continuous minimum level of retention force despite different thermal expansion of the retainer and the wheel cover base. In one form, the wheel cover includes only three retainers thus saving material and part cost, the fingers of the one retainer remotely positioned from the other retainers receiving added support from the concentric wall positioned around the remote retainer to balance the overall retention force of the wheel cover on the vehicle wheel.

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First Claim