mycherokee

My question is what is the pro and con for each wheel? I bought a Jeep and it has trailer wheels on it . Yes the white rim really skinny wheels lol. I am looking into buying 4 steel wheels for $100 total. Or I can buy 4 aluminum for $150 total. Why are steel wheels so cheap? Cant you just sand them and paint them black so they look decent?

Destro

You can sand them and paint them black (you can do that with aluminum too).

The aluminum wheels are more expensive because aluminum is much more expensive than steel as a raw material- prime steel right now is about $45 for 100#, aluminum on the other hand is $300+. Same with scrap- scrap steel at the moment is ~$9-12 per 100# while aluminum is $26 for the same.

mycherokee

Does anyone have some pictures of some stock steel rims that they painted black? I was looking at satin black rustoleum. Clean the rim... then sand it down real good.. clean off dust/debris then spray paint them. 1 Can per wheel a few coats? Do I need a certain temp? Its going to be around 40 on Sunday thats the warmest.

mr.auto

aluminum alloy wheels, it takes alot more work to get the aluminum out of the ground then steel, takes more time to make the aluminum wheels, then after all that their crap, u gotta take care of them and baby them, they leak at the beads, they corrode faster and cant take as hard of a hit as a steel wheel. STEEL FTW

mycherokee

Thats what I was thinking, that steel wheels are stronger and thats what I want. Does anyone have some pics of theirs that they redid? I am trying to get an idea.

jeepkid03

steel wheels rust a lot faster though, which is an issue for me living in New England The wheels that came on my '00 XJ were the steel 5 spoke, and with 84K miles they were already pretty rusty. Threw on some 16" Icons off an '01 limited and haven't had any corrosion issues yet.

Cheap$200Jeep

I have had real good results using their Expoxy enamal appliance paint (SP?) for metal parts. don't think you will need a can per wheel. Temp is a big deal! See how I got around that @ https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...covery-points/

You will want to leave them in even longer...

Think about going with a set of five if you can, a full size spare is a God Send!

4-play

Steel wheels painted black



Aluminum 17's off the Magnum that I threw on one day just to see what it would look like!

dieselgriff

Another consideration is the fact that aluminum wheels tend to lose lugnuts if they are not torqued and retorqued properly. There is a thread over in the dieseltruckresource.com firstgen forums where people are sharing their experiences with having aluminum wheels lose all their lugs and just fall off while the vehicle is in motion, like on the freeway for one fellow who lost his front left @70 mph. So on that note I prefer steel cause its one less thing to worry about ^^

kidkodiak

Hey that looks great! What did you use on 'em? My girlfriend's KJ needs that badly, since she won't spend the money to upgrade the wheels. Would love to paint 'em black for her

4-play

I sanded them, applied a cpl coats of primer then painted them with Tremclad rust paint. They have stood up really well. Ctr caps and stainless rings I got from the wreckers for $20

cubanchris81

I've got Aluminum wheels on my XJ(Jeep 5 stars) & I had my left front come off at 60mph last summer on Liberty Rd it wasn't long after I just put new rotors on too. Was pretty scary it looked like a fire started underneath lots of sparks & then I saw my tire bouncin passed me on yellow line it went off into woods at Liberty resevoir & I haven't seen it since. Bought new rim at junk yard now I'm gettin ready to start manhunt for wheel be nice to have 5 & brush has died off might get lucky.

00XJ

i bought some soft 8 steel wheels and i was told to avoid pot holes and big bumps cause it will bend them all up and make them usless and he said i kinda wasted my money cause the only way i was getting a wheel that was stronger than stock was if i spen over 100 a rim is this true? if so i kinda screwed

moparboy

I'm partial to aluminum, although the old wagon wheels are cool, as well as aftermarket steel Jeep rims. The original steelies in that one pic look sharp. I DO know that in the rust belt the original steel ones tend to rust out if left to the elements, with no re-paint. One buddy had the original steelies on his Cherokee, and air was starting to leak through the rusted rims. Just an FYI.

You could always re-paint the stock Jeep steel rims or even have them powder coated. Powder coating prices have come way down in the last several years.

moparboy

Very nice!