Lame Tech - or - New wheels on my car

[Anderson]

First, start by removing the perfectly good but 'not the style you're going for' 16" wheels from your car so you can sell them and get some money for new wheels and tires.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely9.JPG

Install your old set of these perfectly good wheels/tires while you wait for the buyer to come pick up the 16"ers and give you money.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely2.JPG

Then, somehow be forced to used most of that money on rent instead, effectively crushing your hopes (for a while at least) of some nice chrome O.E.'s. As an alternative, go to your local yard (Pick N Pull...half off weekend in my case!) and get a set of steel wheels that will work. If they have good tires on them already, all the better.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely1.JPG

Get some used tires for cheap to put on the wheels you bought without tires. Proceed to mount them on your car, but be sure to use ONLY bullet lugnuts, as anything else just wouldn't be cool enough.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely3.JPG

Now, you could have just as easily done this before you mounted new (old) tires on your wheels, but sometimes things don't work out that way. So, grab some semi-gloss black and a piece of cardboard, and touchup all the ugly scrapes and surface rust on the wheels.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely5.JPG

Then clean the shit out of your tires with some Westley's Bleche Wite, step back and take a look.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely4.JPG

Finally, if you want to be a RULER, you must use chrome valve stem caps. But, and this is VERY important, keep the old plastic ones because it's garunteed that these will be stolen by some cheap bastard within a few weeks.

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely6.JPG

And the final result of a days efforts:

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely7.JPG

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/ericskars/oldspics/steely8.JPG

I ended up using 215/75/15's on the rear which I think fill up the fenders pretty well, and 205/70/15's on the front which leaves me PLENTY of clearence for my next step: Lower that bitch!!!

I'm also working on some super secret trim tech I'll post in a few weeks.

Does anyone know where I can get some really thin trim rings? I want them to fit inside the first step, leaving the outermost edge of the rim exposed...know what I mean?

Later!

[Sancho]

Here's the thin ones from J.C. Whitney. They're 1 inch wide, $30.00 per set of four. But they're plastic.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=5406&catalogId=10101&lang Id=-1&storeId=10101

[james]

Where'd you get those lug nuts????

[Anderson]

Thanks for the link Sancho...it says those cover the scraped edges though, i want the edges exposed. I'll try to find a picture.

Lugnuts are from a swap meet...some guy always has boxes of various ones.

Ok, here's a pictures....it's all I've got, but you may be able to make them (trim rings) out...

[Sancho]

I think I may have found some, 4th one down on the left side. Notice how they don't broaden out at the rim. "Hot Rod Ribbed" $90.00 a set. After looking at your pic again, those DO look ribbed, look at the back one.
http://www.rallyamerica.com/trimrings/

[hankcash]

slizzamed!

HC

[MattB]

Sweet ride! Daily driver? I used to drive to Denton 5 days a week, but I'm rarely up that way anymore. What swapmeet did you get the lugs at? I like em! Are those 15 x 7 or 15 x 6 wheels on there? I'm looking for some similar wheels but for a Ford 5 lug pattern. I love Pick N Pull! I haven't been there in forever, still a decent selection?

[MattB]

Oh, and FYI, I used to go to UNT and saw that car up there all the time in one of the resident parking areas. Did you live in a dorm up there for awhile?

[junk runner jr]

Booboo on here used to run Thunderbird trim rings on his Chevy ralleys that were maby only a 1/2 think and I think they left the outer lip of the steel wheel exposed. Check wiht him and he should be able to tell you what year they were off of.

[CURIOUS RASH]

<font color="green"> Check the Corvette parts sellers.

I have some like you describe on the front of the 41 and was told they were OEM on early vettes.

http://img54.photobucket.com/albums/v166/Rashy1/RASHY/4110.jpg </font>

[bdrake]

I have the thin ribbed trim rings on my Chevy wheels and they leave the outer edge exposed. Bought em used but I think the guy originally bought them from Wheel Vintiques and was running them on repo Chevy rallye wheels.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~bill/Images/Hamb/trimring.jpg

[67Imp.Wagon]

KR, check with Bass. I think he has them on his car.

[Anderson]

HC - Lookin good!!!

Thanks for all the leads fellas.

MattB - Yup, drive it every day and everywhere. The fronts are 15x6 and the rears are 15x7's. The lugnut guy was at Pate last month, $1 per nut. Yeah, I was in Bruce hall, usually parked in the resident lot. Always tried to park where I could see my car when I walked outside. Pick'N'Pull doesn't have a LOT of good stuff...I didn't see anything old except a couple trucks. A few months ago they had a '63 Caddy four door hardtop.

[Mojo]

That's my favorite style of wheel... shiny black, with thin-line whitewalls. Since that's mid-size GM, you could also fit some 7.5 wide "station wagon" wheels under it. I had to dig through a pig pen and a dump to find a set of 4 7.5" steels.. but you can't beat free. They're a bit deeper, so it makes it a bit more aggressive looking. You can get 8" steels from cop cars too.

I like them so much because it's that late 50's - mid 60's "street racer" look. Check out the old racing pics.. most guys ran black steels on wide rubber with thinline whitewalls...

[IntrstlarOvrdrve]

Lookin good, lol. Anyone know of a store I could buy thos lugnuts from? I never have much luck with small stuff usually, maybe I'm not lookin hard enough though http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif