Wheels and tires

As we mentioned in an earlier post, our friend Ryan (of 2180miles) graciously donated a set of wheels to our cause. They are originally from a Jeep Wrangler YJ, I believe. They had been sitting out in the harsh New England elements for too long. We took them into our home and nurtured them back to life. We set out to give them purpose again.

Here Mandy bathes the wheels to remove a few years of grime.

Squeaky clean! Ha! Yeah right.

This close-up is pretty representative of what all the wheels looked like.

The patina was not severe. We've certainly seen much worse. We agreed that we didn't need a show-car finish; we just wanted them to be one color. So we scrubbed them with a green scrubby pad what's that called? brillo pad? scotch brite pad? and water to knock down the texture formed by the surface rust. This smoothed out the surface of the wheels sufficiently for us to be satisfied. I sprayed a rust-preventing primer on the inside and outside of the wheels. Then, the insides were sprayed black and the outsides silver.

Then came tires. We ordered (3) Falken Wildpeak ATs in 30x9.5x15. To save some money, and to satisfy my curiosity, we decided to mount them ourselves. This has since been considered as a poor choice. I wouldn't recommend it.

After paint, mid-tire installation. This is the point we admitted defeat and got help.

We enlisted the help of our neighbors because we were in over our heads. (Luckily for us, they accept payment in beer.) Also, I did it backwards, unknowingly. Leave this step to professionals. At least now we know what is involved, and we may have saved a few dollars. But the effort involved seems hardly worth it.

The wheels are tires look amazing installed. We're stoked.