MileHightC

So I've gotten to the point that I'm going to 'retire' my '06 xB as a "daily driver" and I use that term loosely as I work from home and travel for work and put, on average, less than 6,000 miles a year on it. I recently picked-up an almost 200,000 mile '99 Jeep Cherokee XJ and that will become the new 'daily' beater...as beater as it can be as it gets completely modded also.

The xB is getting 'new' wheels and tires, which aren't exactly new but more along the lines of 'restored'.

I had picked-up a set of 17"x7" XXR 006's with Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires in a 215/40ZR size off eBay in great condition.



Ran them until it was time for new tires. Impression of the tires was 'mehhhhh'...they tramlined horribly but I don't know if it was just the tires or the fact that I had 215/40s on such a light car and they just 'grabbed' every groove in the roads. I'll know when the new tire go on. In the interim, the blue on the lips had begun to peel off and looked like absolute crap but what's to be expected for that level of quality in a wheel.

So, tires were yanked and wheels went off to be stripped and refinished.




Wheels and Gorilla acorn lugnuts have been powdercoated to match the BSP paint using a custom mixed powder from Prismatic Powders (box of it was $650 and was a dead match to the paint and will also be used on the Grillcraft grills, valve cover, Ingall's 'Stiffy' mount and a few other parts) and everything was also cleared with powdercoat. I'll get pictures of the powdercoated wheels up as soon as I unwrap them and then the lip will be scuffed and re-painted with DupliColor MetalCast blue after a the DupliColor silver base for the MetalCast colors and then cleared with Eastwood's 2K High-Gloss clear.

No wheel weights as I'll be using balancing beads to avoid having to deal with stick-on wheel weights and the wheels will be wrapped in a set of Yokohama Advan Neova AD08Rs in a 215/40 size. Tires are here and just waiting for me to get the motivation to paint the lips.

I also have a full set of 17" steel wheels, went with 17"s to clear the Wilwood brake kit that I have for the front, for the winter and they've got Bridgestone Blizzaks in a 205/40 sizing. I originally painted the wheels using DupliColor primer and their 'color matched' Black Sand Pearl.



Paint didn't look as good as I wanted, so I finally managed to hunt down five more 17" steel wheels after basically destroying two on a huge pot hole and they were powdercoated to match the BSP too. I'll get pictures of them up as soon as I unwrap them and I went so far as to have a set of 17" stainless trim rings powdercoated in a translucent blue to match the lips on the summer wheels. Likely won't be using the winter wheels anymore but I have them just in case.



If I do use them I'll go with another set of the Blizzaks as they're great tires and those will get balancing beads also to avoid having some hack banging wheels weights onto freshly PC'ed wheels.

I'm still debating the XXRs as they're a crap wheel. I've looked at Volk Racing RE30 and NE30 wheels and am having a hard time spending $2,500-3,000 on wheels knowing that I'd still get them powdercoated to the tune of $110/wheel and then have to paint the lip in the blue I like. Unless someone is a huge wheel snob they're going to be pretty hard-pressed to know what the XXRs are after they've been refinished. We'll see but it's not real high on my list right now.

More to come...

MileHightC

Still haven't unwrapped the new wheels with winter having set in here in Colorado but here's an idea of what the powder looks like on the valve cover I just had done...