I got a set of Wagon Wheels and tires without about half tread left on them for $100 yesterday. (actually, got 5 wagon wheels, 4 of them had tires mounted already)

 

 

I like the look of them on the wag, though, they need to be cleaned up and repainted.

 

What do you guys do to clean them up with tires still mounted to them? I'd love to have 'em sandblasted and powder coated... I'll probably do that when they need new tires.

man, they look good, i am looking for a set for mine..is there any rust on them? i would try and get some heavy duty wheel cleaner. i use wheel wash from www.topoftheline.com. Def a good idea to get them sandblasted and powdercoated. that will look even sweeter..good luck.

Holy crap - you mean steel wagon wheels are worth that much? Gawd I must have $1k worth of those crappy things.

 

I guess out in the rust belt they are hard to find? Every other soob I see has a clean set out here...

 

GD

Holy crap - you mean steel wagon wheels are worth that much? Gawd I must have $1k worth of those crappy things.

Actually, the biggest advantage was the tires. I've been running snows I got from DrKrazy for cheap, and I needed some all seasons. They're very nice all season tires with about half tread left. I can probably get a couple years left out of the tires.

 

Colorado is definitely not part of the rust belt.

I just get used snow tires at the junk yards around here for $5 each. Cost's me $10 each to have the dang things mounted/balanced - I need a tire mounting machine. You would be surprised how many cars go to the scrap yard with $200 - $500 in tires left on them. I routinely pick up almost new looking sets for $40 (matching sets mind you), and individual tires are usually $5 or $10 if they are really nice.

 

GD

I'll be honest, never thought of scowering junk yards for tires.

Lots of wrecked 80's cars hit the yards with nearly new tires - happens a lot. Same with batteries. I get batteries for $15 with a used exchange.

 

Our yards pick out the good tires and put them on a rack inside the office according to size. So no sorting through dumpsters full of bald junk.... And they keep good matching sets together which is nice.

 

GD

I had a set of the earlier EA81 wagon wheels sandblasted and powder coated about 7 years ago. It cost a small fortune at the time (I didn't know any better), but they still look good after 7 years of use.

 

Just as an aside, check your wagon wheels for "trueness" (sorry, I don't have a better word for it). When I first got into Subarus I started to collect the EA82 wagon wheels (they look the same but there is a minor difference) and I had a collection of about a dozen. I also noticed that I had a slight front end shimmy no matter how much I had the wheels balanced. The shimmy went away the first time I mounted alloy wheels. After that I took my 12 wheels down to the local tire place and had them checked; I only had 4 good ones out of the twelve! I kept those 4 and trashed the other 8. The point is if you're going to sandblast (glass beading is better) and powdercoat, do it with wheels that are true and won't give you any grief.

Your lucky.. Here if you want tyres you have to have the rims too, cos they won't remove them for you... And all up it isn't cheap.

Your lucky.. Here if you want tyres you have to have the rims too, cos they won't remove them for you... And all up it isn't cheap.

Local pull a part price for wagon wheels here in Seattle is $12.50 plus 9% tax for tire and rim together. They won't sell them separately here. Needless to say I only buy them with good rubber unless I really want/need the rims. Alloys are more expensive.

the "U-pullIt" near me has normal 'good' tyres at like $15 each, another $14 for a steel rim, or $22 for alloy's. But if you pick anything off the racks they have it is even more. And there isn't much difference in the dollar.

But I guess a set of rear disc brakes for a old subie is worth $500 here, so... :-\ we get ripped off, but I guess it must be for a good reason.

Way I look at it, $100 was a decent deal. I wanted another set of wheels so I could have all-seasons on them. A set of A/S and a set of Snows for winter.

 

I figure, $10/rim (I got 5, one doesn't have a tire), and $12.50/tire that'll last me probably two years. Not bad.

But I guess a set of rear disc brakes for a old subie is worth $500 here, so... :-\ we get ripped off, but I guess it must be for a good reason.

Wow, I sell complete rear disk brake conversions from the pull a part yard for $100 plus shipping. Weight is 45 lbs for a set; it might be worth it to ship a few sets to OZ!

I got a set of wheels in about the same condition as yours but without tires. I didn't want to spend the money on blasting and powercoating, so I put a wire brush in the drill and knocked off of the loose rust. Then I primed them with Rust-o-leum and Painted them white. I just did the outside. You could do the same with the tires on - just be careful around the bead and especially near the valve stem. Then cover the tire with newspaper and tape it around the edge of the rim and paint away.

 

My Loyale wagon is white and the wheel really improve the appearance.

 

Good luck,

 

Jim

Wow, I sell complete rear disk brake conversions from the pull a part yard for $100 plus shipping. Weight is 45 lbs for a set; it might be worth it to ship a few sets to OZ!

I've had a couple of chats to some Aussies about this idea and think it would be awesome. I wonder how many sets you should ship before the postage charge is ridiculuos. I'd take anyone up on the offer to ship some to Aus, just if I had the money right now...

I wouldn't think shipping would be much over $100 - $150 - that's still a considerable savings over $500 a set. You OZ folks must not have got many in the first place eh? Or are your laws such that used brakes need special testing or something? We are filthy with them here - so many they end up crushing most sets cause we don't pull them....

 

GD

People seem to say we got heaps here... But I don't see as big of a percentage per old subie to RX ratio as you have in the US. We can quite happily put the rear discs on no questions asked.

 

I think the real thing here is our junk yards don't have as many "newer" cars then yours. You talk about pulling EJ's at the junkyard... we're lucky to find a EFI car in our junk yards. Either Australia is kinder on cars, or theres more poor people that keep them going then in the US.

 

... What was this topic about again? lol, sorry for all the hijacking.

We got rear discs on every turbo model - not just the RX.... and there was a LOT of turbo's over here.

 

Pretty much anything that's over 10 years old is u-pull-it fodder out here. mostly the EJ's that I see are wrecked - but they were very popular, so many, many were sold.... and subseqently wrecked.

 

GD

Wagon wheels FTW!

I would have to say I like the look of a nice set of wagon wheels better than nearly all the other wheels available.

Double Hi-jack

You guys are killing my thread Actually, I don't mind. I've hijacked a fair number of threads myself.

 

I'm gonna have to pull a set of rear discs and see about shipping them to you guys down under.

edrach, i am very interested in the disk brake conversion. There are none in Oklahoma. The Subaru's are not very popular around here. Please let me know, that is the last thing that I need to do to upgrade my wagon.