Restoring 86 Ranger Wheels

My old Ranger looks a bit rough and the wheels are a fairly inexpensive project you can knock out in 4-8 hours. I ordered eBay wheel jewelry last week and grabbed a can of $7 flat black wheel paint. Not sure how they'll hold up but boy do they look pretty.

Original Poster: blairdeee

Cost: $135

Difficulty: 3 out of 10

Time to install: 4-8 hours


Disclaimer: The Ranger Station.com, The Ranger Station.com Staff, nor the original poster are responsible for you doing this modification to your vehicle. By doing this modification and following this how-to you, the installer, take full responsibility if anything is damaged or messed up. If you have questions, feel free to PM the original poster or ask in the appropriate section of The Ranger Station.com forums.


Tools Needed:
- Tire Iron
- pry bar
- Floor Jack
- Flat head screw driver
- Rubber mallet
- 300 grit wet sand paper
- Citrus engine degreaser
- Masking Tape
- Newspaper
- Medium bristle brush

Parts Needed:
- Wheel Paint
- Replacement Hubs
- New Lug Nuts (optional)
- Replacement Wheel Trim (optional)
- Replacement Hub covers (optional)
- 1/4" license plate inserts (for mounting hub covers if yours are missing)


Steps:
1. strip off old wheel trim and hub covers. If your wheel trim is original and in good shape, you can polish these up nice instead of buying lesser quality eBay parts. mine were beat so I opted for the reproductions

2. Use a degreaser (I used citrus based) and soak the wheel. Scrub with a brush to loosen the old grime. hose off.

3. sand down the pits and rust. I used a 300 grit wet just to level out the surface. I didn't spend much time on this, maybe 5 min per wheel. If they rust up again a can of paint is cheap enough.



4. Tape them off and paint. I painted them on the truck, but could have done a better job if I had taken them off. A flat or mat finish paint is more forgiving so if you're using a gloss paint, spend more time sanding. I did 5 light coats. the paint set up fast so by the time I finished the first coat on all four wheels, the first wheel I painted was ready for the second coat.



5. Install the new wheel jewelry. The new chrome wheel inserts were tough to get in, so I used a rag to protect the finish and hammered them in with the rubber mallet.



I still have a few project in mind such as paint, but it's looking better tonight than it did this morning




I am new to the Ranger Station, so I hope some people find this useful

I see you did go with black. It looks nice. The chrome really pops. Now you just need some tire wet to finish out the look..

Thanks Luke. I was thinking about it but am all out of tire shine product. I also had to replace a few wheel studs on both rear wheels, but it was quite easy on this truck.

Looks really nice, paint is cheap, wow that other stuff was pricey, but it did look great when you put them on the truck.