Cheap wheel ideas

I thought I'd share some of my ideas for cheaper decent looking wheels.  I know swap meet wheels can be good deals. I have done the sandblasted rusty Cragers SSs and painted the spoke black and the outside rim area gray to simulate Torque Thrust wheels, but here are a couple other ideas I've come up with.

The first is dirt cheap if you have 15" steel wheels on your car.  I did this to a 96 Crown Victoria that had no hubcaps when I got it.  I originally was going to try and get the factory correct caps, but I had a set of caps from my old '85 F150  that I junked.  They didn't look terrible, but it was suggested to me topaint the caps black.  So I did.  I have replaced those cap from a swap meet $5 at the end of the day.  I bought the paint and masking tape for less than $10.  For less than $20 you could go from this


to this



to this




I decide this winter I'm gonna drive the 77 LTD II in the snow.  The 14" tires on it had good tread, but were dry rotted.  So I had my turbines on it.  The 275/60s that were on the back were not gonna work great in the snow.  I figured if I was gonn buy tires I might as well get snow tires.  I got a great deal on some 225/75R15 blizzaks on C-List.  Problem was the car had 14"s and I didn't have any 15" steelies in stock.  I posted a WTB post on C-List looking for some steelies.  I planned on using the F150 deal above on 15"ers if I could get some.  I couldn't and j-yards wanted $25 a wheel.  I could do below cheaper.

I did see a guy posting and reposting 15" steel wheels from a Jeep Cherokee.  They used this wheel on the Cherokees and Wranglers I think for a lot of years so I see them on C-List offen.  In fact this is the second set I did.  They aren't near as cheap as the F150 caps, but I needed something.   The first set I did I used the jeep center painted black.  The problem with doing that is the fronts don't clear the dust caps.  To fix that I cut the center out so the dust caps stuck through.  It was OK, but not great.  With the idea of using the Police Crown Vic or Ranger center caps Form Crownvic.net and Andy(eliteman)  I decided to use Ranger caps.  There are several designs that will work.  I like the ones Andy used better, but these are the ones I found.  Like I said above not super cheap and they also have the downside of having a lot of backspacing 4.75-5"s  I know they will work on 72 ups, but can't comment on earlier models.

Ranger wheels might be a better choice,but I don't see them on C-list near as often as the jeep wheels.
I got a set of 5 jeep steel wheels of C-List for $30, but they looked like this.

That wasn't gonna work for me.  I sandblasted them, but forgot to take a pic.  You could probably get similar results with a wire brush sand paper and a lot of time.  I then painted them with Duplicolor self etching primer.



I then painted them with Rustoleum Hammered Finish dark bronze 7218(finish is kinda dimply.  It hides the pitting better).  The Dark Bronze looks more Charcoal to me.



Here is with center caps.  They use special lug nut.  You need at least 12.  Get ones from a Crown Vic.  Ranger ones will work too, but if you get Ranger ones you'll want all 20.  Ranger lug nuts use a 3/4" socket instead of the 13/16" socket we use.  That way you won't heed to carry two lug wrenches.



Here was the price list for me.  Parts bought new include WI sales tax.
Jeep Wheels of C-List                      $30.00
Sand Home Depot 3 x 4.12 + tax     $13.04
Blasting Tip                                    $ 2.63
Primer (in stock) Est $5                   $ 5.28 (probably wouldn't need this with Rustoleum paint)
Paint Walmart                                 $ 6.30 (  I had 1/2 a can in stock that I used as well  Could probabl finished with 1 but YRMV)
Caps and lug nuts J-yard                 $30.00    
Total cost with cost of in stock items $87.25     

By the time you include gas money to get the items listed I probably have $100.  I know that doesn't seem cheap, but if you buy new cheap steel wheels it'll cost over$200 by the time you buy lug nuts and centers.  Used alloys in decent shape will probaby cost more than $100 too.


I'd like to see some other peoples ideas

The Crown Vic is long gone.  It was my winter beater 2 years ago.  Id save the LTD II 4 door from the salt, but I had it up for sale a $800firm nobody bit. Even though it is a low mileage(54k) rust free car it obviously isn't a desired car and I couldn't sell it.  I might as well enjoy it and drive it.

Sorry.   I need to update my sig.  The wagon and the 73 4 speed are gonna get locked in a room together to see what happens.  The LTD II would cost more than $800 now.  I replaced all the belts, hoses, water pump to make sure it would be reliable.  I also wired it for a six channel amp and put in a fairly basic system 'cause I gotta have my tunes.  I'm in WI anyways.  So I'm not close.
Tom

Great ideas on using the Jeep wheels. Thankfully the 5 X 4.5 bolt pattern is quite common amongst the manufacturers.