All Right! It’s Gonna Be The Wheels First!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started thinking about sprucing up the Chevy Tracker for the Spring and Summer season. It’s super mild up here today (just a bit above freezing) and I’m getting itchy to drop the top and ride.

To my mind, one area which can have the most visual impact is the wheels. Grungy wheels = Grungy Car.

Here’s a shot of my tracker taken last summer just after I picked it up.

Gotta do something about those wheels, man!

It’s a bit hard to get a good look at the wheels, so here’s a shot of the wheel itself.

Oh, Yuck! Makes the Tracker look like a rust bucket.

Kind of shabby, but it`s not just the wheels though, a closer look shows that the wheel nuts are kind of rusty as are the rear wheel hubs. I don`t show them here, but the front brake pad calipers are also that nice red rust color.

On top of that, the Tracker came with Uniroyal Tigerpaws and those things squealed when turning corners at 10 to 20 mph on suburb streets even though they have a good amount of tread left. It’s so embarrassing when people wheel around and stare at you like you’re! They`ve got to go as well.

This is going to be a fun little project, and there are a few options.

Things that are sort of no brainers or carved in stone are:

1. New Tires
2. New Wheel Nuts

As far as the wheels themselves are concerned though, there are a few options.

1. Buy new alloy or chrome wheels
2. refinish the ones that I currently haveand, an option that I just discovered,
3. Wheel Skins!

Now, no matter what route I go for the wheels themselves, refinish or new, they’re not going to look great with all those rusty parts peeking through (like the rear drums and front calipers). I sure don’t want to replace perfectly good working parts just for appearances sake, so I had to  come up with something. After a prolonged search I came across ……

4. Brake Dust Shields.

Brake dust shields fit inside your wheels and serve two purposes. The main purpose t is to protect your wheels from brake dust caused by the braking action, which is very hard on the finish. At the same time, they just happen to cover the rusty brake parts. They’re usually sold in pairs and are way cheaper than replacing all the rusty, but working wheel parts.

Okay, so that’s the overview, more to follow once I actually get to doing the project – which will depend to a large extent on mother nature.

Make it a Great Day!

MarcL