Steel Wheels!

Steel wheels! I had been wanting to do this for a while, got em on just before quarantine. Four 16” Tacoma spares from wheelsandcaps.com, three were “refurbished” (sprayed black) and one was right off a truck. All 4 shipped was $244. Tires are Cooper AT/3 265/75/16 p-load. 883s up front, single AAL in the rear, 5100s all around

For the paint I used just regular rustoleum satin black enamel, sanded lightly with 400 then loaded it on, let it dry for an appropriate period of time in between coats, 72hrs, did it three (?)times, then waited a week before mounting. Scuffs a little but the tire mounting went fine, could only find flat or semi-gloss locally in wheel paint and wanted satin. Glad I went for it.

My old TPMS sensors fit fine in the spares.

Got it washed since the pictures and will upload some better ones in the next few days

 

Looks good! I want some blacked out steelies once I get my lift situation situated. Have you tried the deep woods off treatment for your headlights? Looks like the may be a bit foggy. Or it may be just the camera angle.

 

Looks good! I had the stock steel wheels before that I had plastidipped, it was fine for a little but these are worlds above. My headlights are terrible!!! I have the meguiars kit but I just haven’t gotten around to it, what’s the deep woods off headlight treatment!?! I def have that laying around.

 

Will do when I get a pic of it clean tomorrow! It got dark before I could snap one.

 

Always liked my steelies better than the stock sport wheels.

 

Just spray the headlights with the deep woods off, let it set for a half a minute or so, then wipe it off with some paper towels. It’s not perfect, but it takes a good bit of oxidation off.

 

Post 2 in that thread is awesome!

 

Steelies! Originally bought them because I needed a set fast and they were cheap, but I really fell in love with how they look.

 

Timeless style. Alloys and especially aftermarket ones get cheesier with time. However, I recently saw a guy on here with some badass gold Enkeis..

I like my stock steelies.

 

that’s exactly why I went with the steel, timeless, the alloy after markets just wouldn’t look right on my truck

 

Was running those for the first 100k but when I went to get new tires the shop couldn’t balance them, said they had bent at the hub. The wobble in the steering wheel was unbearable so I had to find a new solution.

 

I think you'll find that in reality, it doesn't remove oxidation, it just masks it for a bit.

 

yea, I just did it after reading that post, I had some deet 100 or something like that, it def made a difference but I don’t plan on it being a permanent fix, I was just curious to try it and I have the meguiars kit as well, just haven’t set a plan in motion on that and the deet was a quick fix.

 

FJ steelies with the original steel center cap are the shit. I had a set and sold 'em. I could kick myself.


I do have some steelies for my snow tires. Does that count?

 

totally! Had those initially, plastidipped but it didn’t hold up well, I looked into upgrading to the FJs, buying them new with new tires, but I saved $900-$1000 going this route. Would be nice to have some centercaps for the rear, but when I get a chance I’ll pull of the rear wheels and spray the hub centers black with some rust reformer or something like that.

 

I very much like the look but I have heard steels are heavier than alloy - is that correct?

 

I replaced my stock aluminum rims with steel because the stock aluminum looked terrible and constantly leaked after 8 years on Minnesota road chemicals. Not sure if it was a good idea but, I haven't had to add any air since I replaced the aluminum ones. I will say I have an ever slightest annoying shimmy at about 35 mph and then again at 68 mph. It's not real bad but, it's annoying. I have reason to believe it's bad balancing as I didn't have any issues with the aluminum ones. The plan is to have them re-balanced when I take the truck in to have have the tires rotated, something I usually do myself but, I want the balancing checked. Not fond of aluminum rims in the rust belt area as every set I've had started to leak air after a few years of road chemicals and a tire change. The only exception is the aluminum rims on our 07 HHR but, it only has 44,000 on it and has had only one tire change.
Did notice the weight difference wasn't that great and as long as you're not racing who cares? The steel rims are of thinner material where as the material in aluminum rims are thicker. I imagine it's for strength. Here's thought, what if the material in aluminum rims was the same thickness as steel? It would be extremely light but, you wouldn't even be able to mount a tire without damaging the aluminum rim..