When I bought my house I had the option of putting some snazzy wheels on it, rather than the standard, really ugly, wheels. I took it, and glad I did. But, the wheel nuts, the lug nuts, are kinda special. Not custom or anything, just of an unusual design.
I started the problem in my first year and had a flat tire in Frenchglen, Oregon. A million miles from anywhere, I had to put on the spare to get to Winnemucca, Nevada. In the process I used a “six-point” socket and slightly “rounded” one of the soft, aluminum, decorative, nuts. A neighbor had a “twelve-point” socket which worked fine in removing the nut.
After so damned many tire changes, the typical six-points used by typical tire shops have rounded that one nut even more. Today was the end of it. Jimmy had a gadget that could take it off, but it went into my pocket, not to be reused.
At first I was fine with just leaving it off until I could find a replacement, then I started thinking how often I would be reminded that I was missing a wheel nut. Jimmy gave me one that covered up the problem, though doesn’t really do anything.
No chance of finding a replacement locally. What I need is a fancy wheel shop. Now, everywhere I’ve gone in this country, the places with the fanciest snazziest wheels are in big cities next to Mexico, or have a large Mexican population. Those guys are artists when it comes to vehicles, and wheels. I’ve seen some awesome wheels in those places, and dearly envy them. But I wouldn’t pay to have them.
San Antonio will be a good place to find a specialty wheel shop that will have the nut I need. Good economy, plentiful Hispanic population, great-looking vehicles on the road. I’ll find that nut there.