Refurbing FJ Steelies

Hello friends,

I picked up some FJ steelies that happened to have some usable Blizzaks attached. I mostly wanted the 17s so I would have some more size options for tires down the road, but a dedicated set of winters isn't horrible to have in the frigid Northlands.



I went after them with a wire wheel to get the big crud off:



And in the exterior seam, I used a shitty old o-ring pick to dig out as much crap as possible:



If these were rare, valuable, or important steelies (or if I was having a particularly detail oriented day) I could have folded a piece of sandpaper and got farther into the groove. But I didn't.

I did, however, grab a small wire toothbrush and get after the worst rust bubbles around the valve stems and in some other areas my wire wheel and wire cup wouldn't reach.

After a rinse and degrease, they looked about as rust free as I was willing to put any more time into, so I dried them off real thorough-like with compressed air, and applied my favorite magic in a can:



It got down pretty good into the seam and the areas I couldn't reach with the wire wheel. Two coats per directions printed on the can did a pretty good job:



I'm going to give it overnight per the directions on the rust converter, then prime and paint.

 

Are you planning to get those weights off?
I would before paint, that way the next set of tires won't need a touch up..

 

Nah, the plan right now is to put a couple different finishes inside the different wheels and see what holds up best, then when the tread is used up, pull 'em and do a better job of stripping/cleaning/painting, and also add TPMS.

 

You should try to get the steel center caps for them. Those are sweet

 

FJ Steelies on my old 2005;


and now on the 3rd Gen;

 

Those look SICK in white. Nice!

 

Applied self-etching primer to the interiors. I didn't mask the tires on the insides, and you can't say anything that will make me regret it.



I did the insides with two different paints as an experiment. One side got old trusty and always faithful Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel, the other got Dupli-color Wheel Coating. Both interiors got two coats according to the directions on the respective cans, and I marked the Dupli-colors with white dots so when my dumb ass forgets which is which, I can look here and remember.



Dog hair everywhere. 24/7. He has hair on continents he's never been to.


Three coats of Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel on the outsides, which I did mask. Here's the money shots:





They will never, ever be this clean again.