Ordered new wheels and tires for the truck

[astroracer]

I have been wanting to replace the wheels and tires on my truck for a couple of years now. They've been on there since '01 and I am pretty tired of the look.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/01/ry3D400-21.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/01/ry3D400-22.jpg
American Racing has come out with a Rallye style wheel which is what I have been looking for. A few companies have been making them in billet aluminum but the prices were much more then what I wanted to pay. The Americans are affordable and they will build them to my specs. I stopped at Discount Tire and got prices before Xmas break. It takes 4 to 6 weeks to build them but that is a non-issue as the truck is in storage for the winter anyway. I ordered the rims on the 13th of January after verifying the measurements.
Sizes are 17x8 w/5 1/2" BS in front and 18x10 w/6.25" BS in the rear. 245/45's and 295/45 Nitto 555's will be the tires.
Here are a few pics of the rims. I think these will look great on the truck!
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/01/ry3D400-23.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/01/ry3D400-24.jpg
I currently have 255/50's on the front and they are pretty tight to the outer fender. The smaller diameter and narrower footprint of the 245 will let me drop the front another inch. With the slight drop I'll get from the smaller tire and the inch from the suspension it should look a little better up front.
Mark

[astroracer]

Got some pics of the new wheels (well, wheel..) on the truck today. The day I picked them up I test fit the left rear just to make sure my measurements were right.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-8.jpg
Can't wait for this weather to let up!
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-9.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-10.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-11.jpg

[mikewoods]

Looks great Mark!

[astroracer]

Thanks Mike!

[astroracer]

I looked the new rims over when I picked them up. One was kinda rough but I couldn't see sending it back and waiting another 4 to 6 weeks for a new one to be made with no guarantee it would be any better then this one...
This is the wheel.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-56.jpg
Here are some of the issues. This is nicked up with a nice gouge.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-57.jpg
The edges of all of the slots were ugly. To heavy handed with the polisher. ate right into the edges of the slots.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-58.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-59.jpg

I cobbled together this roller that clamps to the fab table, lets the tire roll nice and easy. Makes quick work out of sweetening up this rim.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-60.jpg

In order to fix the slots I made a template to mark the radius needed to remove the rough stuff.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-61.jpg
laying it in and lining it up with the existing slot made marking the trim lines easy.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-62.jpg
Lined up and ready to mark.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-63.jpg

I used a black Sharpie to mark the "new" edge of the slot.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-64.jpg
Then I busted out the high tech alloy displacement device....
Mainly a big half-round file... Took about a half hour to get all of the edges cleaned up. Some were worse then others but they all need to be cleaned up.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-65.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-66.jpg
This is the surface finish left by the file.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-67.jpg

[astroracer]

A little disappointed on the quality of the polishing job. The other three rims are okay, just this one is a sad job.
I broke out a sanding drum on a drill motor with 180 grit emery paper to start cleaning up the file cuts on the new openings.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-68.jpg
after a few minutes of work this is how they turned out.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-69.jpg
I ran the drum on the openings going from the 180 to 400 then 600, 1000 and finished up with 1200. Smoothed the edges good enough that some heavy polishing will bring the shine back.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-70.jpg
Once I had that done I got busy taking out the scratches and gouges. I started with 400 grit on a rubber Dura-Block and started feathering them out.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-71.jpg
Once I started sanding I ended up going over the whole face of the wheel. There were so many heavy cut lines and deep grooves from the half-assed factory polishing this was the only way to get a smooth surface... You can see the waves in the pic to the right of where I started sanding.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-71.jpg
here is another pic after I had most of the scratches and gouge worked out. This also shows the waves better.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-72.jpg
I used WD40 as a lube to "wet sand" all of the waviness out. I spent about an hour and a half doing this. Cleaning and re-sanding until all of the low spots were gone.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-73.jpg
The hard part was getting the surface flat again. Once that was done it only took a couple of hours to step up through the grits. Going to 600, 1000, 1200 and then 1500. You can see the shine is already starting to develop at 1500.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-74.jpg
I stopped a O'Rielly's tonight on my way home and picked up one pack each of 2000 and 3000 grit. I'll work at getting this ready for final polishing this week.
I ordered a nice polishing kit from Eastwood so I'll get all of the rims sanded out to 3000 grit before I use that.
The wheel looks a ton better with all of the openings repaired!
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-75.jpg
These will be beautiful once they are polished correctly.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-76.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/ry3D400-77.jpg

[astroracer]

I worked on the rim today. Finished the sanding process. I took the whole wheel out to 2000 grit.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-2.jpg
Once that was done I cleaned it up with mineral spirits and fired up the electric drill with a buffing cone in it. Loaded the cone with red rouge and gave the whole wheel a once over.
This is starting to look pretty tasty...
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-3.jpg
I again cleaned the wheel with mineral spirits and changed over to an unsewn buffing pad with the same red rouge to get down into the space between the rim and the center. This is quite deep... I also used the unsewn buff to really clean up the wheel bead.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-4.jpg
Once that was done I re-cleaned the wheel and swapped to a new unsewn buff and white rouge. After about 15 minutes this is what I have.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-5.jpg
This is almost there.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-6.jpg
It is still a bit swirly looking but that is where a couple of deep hand polishing's will finish it off.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-7.jpg
I'll use Mother's Billet Polish first and finish up with White Diamond.

[astroracer]

After 20+ hours of polishing I went through all four rims. Sanding out to 2000 grit and polishing with red and white rouge. It's sad I had to do all of this but the rims really looked bad from the factory. They look like chrome now so I did a much better job at it then they did.

I got out into the shop this afternoon and got the rims changed out on the truck. I think it looks great. I will be making a couple of 1/4" spacers for the rears to get them where I want them and the front needs to come down an inch or so but that will do it for now.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-8.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-9.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-10.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/04/ry3D400-11.jpg