Astro AWD "Stroverlander"

[Stroverlander]

A few months ago, I picked up this set of 4 used oem Chevy 16x7 aluminum wheels with tires, sold the tires to break even on the wheels. I'd been looking for a set of Hummer H3 wheels but these came up and were a good deal with the tires and knew if I was patient I'd get my money out of the tires. Also, the tires were 245/75-16 so was able to test fit on the van to get an idea on fitment if I were to do something similar, maybe, possibly, perhaps...

These are the same wheels as what came on my van with the metallic silver paint and machined finish, just in hideous condition.



The wheels were pretty corroded and judging by the amount of brake dust I'm guessing never been cleaned, but they didn't have any curb rash and I wanted an extra set of wheels for my van anyway.

I was originally going to bead blast and powdercoat myself (the wheels, not me) as I have done in the past, so the corrosion and brake dust wasn't a concern. However, that option wasn't available in the time frame I wanted (using a friend's equipment) so I moved on to prepping and painting the wheels. I used Rustoleum Automotive gray primer and Rustoleum Wheel Enamel in flat black.

With the wheels being so nasty to start with and not considering myself much of a painter, I wasn't really sure what the outcome would be.

The wheels were corroded in several spots around the rim from wheel weights, on the spoke area and on the inside tire bead surface:



Inside with serious amount of brake dust coating wheels:



After a lot of prep work involving drills with wire wheels and wire cups, sanding, cleaning and more sanding, this is what the wheels looked like:







I taped the wheels, wiped them down with acetone and set up a painting station outside (my only available option) using a 4x4 with a couple of large conical spacers (borrowed from my motorcycle wheel balancing stand) to set the wheel on while painting and be able to flip over to paint both sides. Started with light coat of primer on the inside of wheels, and then a few heavier coats, flipping wheels over as necessary to prime both sides. I did a little sanding here and there as I worked out best technique while doing this over several days in varying hot and windy conditions. Same idea for spraying the flat black paint, light first coat and then heavier coats while trying to leave a nice wet look on the final coat to the outer surface of the wheels.

The wheels turned out better than I anticipated, not perfect by any means, but much better than what I started with for sure.





I may run these wheels sans center caps with black closed end wheel nuts or if I do decide to use the center caps, I'll spray those with black Plasti Dip so it's not permanent as my original wheels are still silver/machined finish.

Excited to see what these will look like on Stroverlander...

[T.Low]

Railvan Brian photoshopped my wheels and plastic facia in black. At times I've wanted to do it, but can't committ and have too many other things to do anyway.

[Stroverlander]

Railvan Brian photoshopped my wheels and plastic facia in black. At times I've wanted to do it, but can't committ and have too many other things to do anyway.

I think I saw that one somewhere. I did a similar photoshop awhile back to get an idea how it would look (wheel arches included to tie in to body molding) but think I'm going to leave it at the black wheels as I like the contrast. I may do 3m matte black or standard black vinyl over the side windows though.

That's part of the reason I got the second set of wheels, so didn't have any downtime though prep/painting was pretty time consuming.

Here's my photoshop image:

[T.Low]

Now that I think about it, I posted it in Van pics thread.

My van came with the directional Chev wheels that I do not like, so, I ended up with 12 of the Chev 1/2 ton 5 spokes like yours. ($75 for a set of 5 on CL; $100 for a set of 4 of CL; and $25 for a set of three with worn tires from a dealership parts department).

Mounted a set of AT's on one set of 5 (brand new "bring backs" from Discount Tire- $433 mtd/bal/out the door), a set of MT's on a set of 4 (slightly used tires from ExPo) , and have three others that I keep in case I ever see the need for a trailer. $1200 into 2 sets of tires with extra wheels. That was 40,000 miles ago and I'm no where near needing a set of tires yet.


Thought of painting the Mud set black...maybe I'll take a long look at yours when you're done (like while eating breakfast or something)

[Stroverlander]

So here is how Stroverlander looks with freshly refinished matte black wheels and new tires!

I went with Treadwright Warden A/T (BFG T/A KO E load rating) 245/75-16 tires balanced with 8oz of Dynabeads in each wheel/tire and Orange Electronic P409S tpms system installed. The 245/75-16 tires are about 1 1/2" larger diameter (30.7") than the 235/70-16 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S (29.2") so an additional 3/4" of lift gained.

I've been wanting to try a set of these Treadwright Warden A/T tires after much research so now I'll find out how well they work. I'm still looking for a couple extra spare wheels to mount two more tires for use in rotation. Not sure if I am going to sell the Yokohama Geolandars yet or keep them for daily driving, they are still in great condition with approximately 6k on them. Like T.Low, I think I'd be set on tires for some time to come if I kept them and had the two sets.

As I currently only have the one set of center caps from my original silver wheels I didn't want to do anything permanent to the original finish so I removed the aluminum outer covers (tabs on back of covers), removed the plastic wheel nut inserts, painted the bare black plastic finish with matte black and reinstalled the wheel nut inserts.

New wheels and tires installed w/o center caps:





With painted center caps:





Unfortunately, I haven't even driven Stroverlander yet - been sitting since the weekend when the fuel pump went out and waiting on replacement Delphi pump from Rock Auto to arrive. Let's hope I have better luck with Delhi fuel pump than I did with their radiators! <knock on wood>

Can't wait to swap fuel pumps and go test drive!

[ihatemybike]

The cap off looks good in pictures.

[Stroverlander]

The cap off looks good in pictures.

I like it without center caps too, looks mo' rugged. If I do that I'll have to remove the rust and paint the rear center hubs black and add some black acorn style lug nuts.

[Stroverlander]

Finished installing new Delphi fuel pump assembly in Stroverlander today and back into action! Nice to have good fuel pressure and immediate starting without additional cranking, etc.

Dropping the 27 gallon fuel tank, luckily only about 6 gallons of fuel in tank at the time. It's nice, with lift and 31" tires I didn't even need to jack up van.



Lines disconnected before dropping all the way.



New Delphi pump installed, old pump didn't want to come out of tank as it had become swollen, attribute this to the ethanol in fuel.



Just before splicing in new harness connector and reinstalling tank.



After test run, I located a small pinhole exhaust leak in the front weld of the "pre" cat, probably the source of occasional P0420 code so will weld that this week.

[Stroverlander]

After additional trimming to front wheel wells and bumper cover I went for test run, ended up on a bit of urban exploration. Stopped to look around and take a few photos along the way (phone cam).

[T.Low]

Looking good, Bro, looking real good.