So,
Like many people I was hoping to score some new to me wheels for not a lot of money for my 95' 4runner with stock wheels. I started poking around on eBay and I found a set where they guy did three things?he started his auction at 99 cents, it was 15 min?s away and he happened to spell rims wrong. They were center line aluminum hellcats and I used my good friend auctionsniper.com. I won the bid for a whopping $5.51. I picked the up and they were in a real mess?but I love aluminum wheels, they don?t rust, they are light and you can always clean them.

After eating though my mother?s power ball, I took a trip to Harbor Freight for some 500 grit wet sanding paper, a polish kit and some brass wire dremel bits.

They are not perfect, but I?ll post pictures of where I?m at currently. I also had a set of 31x 10.50 Yokohama MT?s sitting around so I got those mounted on these rims now.

What do you guys thing of my $5 wheels (Pictures are from the auction before I picked them up.)

 

Not my particular style, but it's hard to go wrong at that price!

Post some pics when you get them mounted on your rig - that's always the final verdict!

 

Hey for $5 you cant pass them up...

 

Those look very similar to the Centerlines that came on my '91 4Runner when I bought it many a year ago.

http://www.pnw4runners.com/runs/41203/8.jpg

http://www.pnw4runners.com/runs/41203/4.jpg

With some good alloy polish and some elbow grease, they will shine up good.

 

Those are very clean...I doubt these will ever be that clean again. They've got baked grease and road grime. Some of that stuff just won't come off...no matter how much I sand or polish. But It looks like the guy never cleaned them....well what can you expect from a guy who can't spell "rims" correctly.

He lost the center caps too...so I'm thinking about painting the centers around the lugs black. We'll see. I'll post some updated pictures tonight.

I have to ditch work early today in order to go to the dentist. (Yea) I think I might buy some black lug nuts afterwards out of sympathy for myself.

 

haha, I had that auction bid on up to $5.01. I was just going to get them for the size that they are.. I didn't really like the look of them but I was not going to bid any higher either.

congrats on outbidding me. haha.

 

You might think about having them sandblasted and powdercoated. You won't even be able to notice how bad the finish was.

 

HAHAHA....I knew it was another Toyota guy...I saw the other stuff you bid on.

Funny stuff.

 

Well here is what they look like after the brass wire dremel, 500 grit wet sanding and the used set of MT's I had around.

They will get polished at least some what probably by the weekend.

 

They look a lot better.

Since these are not clear coated, they take a lot of elbow grease to polish.

I have had good luck with Eagle One Billet Polish which they do not seem to make anymore.
Now they have Nano.
http://www.eagleone.com/pages/produc...sp?itemid=1120

The last stuff I used on my Centerlines was Griots which is very good.
http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog....1002&SKU=11155

 

I have the alloys that came with the '95 Yota, and they haven't been shiny in years. The normal toothbrush and degreaser soap method of cleaning only helps to remove brake dust and mud. Can I use the same methods as wardriver to restore the shiny luster or would this further damage the wheels? I ask because of the label "alloy". I bought a Dremel that I rarely use, so this would be a good project for me if it would work.

 

looks good...i would paint the spokes black.

 

aluminum oxidize really fast, hi humility doesn't help the matter either. better put on the coating very quickly to protcet the exposed metal. i don't know what kind of aluminum alloy these wheels were made of, but sooner is better.

by the way, they look good. and much bigger backspacing than the factory rims. please let us know how they fit.

 

that is a really super $5.00 deal. if i could only be so lucky sometime. good score. post some pics of them on your truck.

 

certainly cant beat 5 bucks. shoot, u could throw em back up on ebay and make urself a chunk of change. lol.

look real nice. id paint those suckers black though. i believe that could look rather tough.

 

Member paddlenbike has a good article on the stock alloys.
Someone else on the forum did it last week, you might search for it.

Ken seems to have taken his article down.
Lets see if the waaaaaaaaaaaay back machine can find it.
Here was his URL
http://www.off-road.com/~kemanuel/SR5Wheel/SR5Wheel.htm

Then we plug it into the machine
http://www.archive.org/index.php
and you end up with this.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://...l/SR5Wheel.htm

It can not locate the pics, but he has a step by step procedure there.

 

Not to split hairs, but I wouldn't mock anyones spelling considering you spelled "Cheap" incorrectly in the title of your thread.

That being said, I'd say you scored pretty well picking up those wheels.

 

Yea...thats what happens when you're YTwW (on a conference call to be exact)

Good thing I have thick skin.

 

got the rims on my truck for 20bucks they are in great shape american racing 15x8


isn't that a great feeling knowing you got the greatest deal ever


i think that your rims look great

 

Those are sweet, and a great deal too!