How many of you like the look of steel wheels?

[Popinski]

I saw a black slightly modified VW Golf with Black steel wheels. It actually looked pretty good. I'm trying to imagine all these cars sold in the US with steel wheels and I think it'll look pretty good. Any thoughts?

Think of a present day Dodge Challenger with black steel wheels.. I think it'll look good.

 

[sciphi]

Black steelies look good until they start rusting. Then they look like garbage.

 

[SEMI_287]

One word comes to mind: ricer.

 

[JHZR2]

Black steel with big tires on trucks/SUVs look good.

Argent silver painted steel with trim rings like were popular for years look perfect.

My 240D has aluminum rims that look like steelies (very light for less unsprung weight on a 67hp car). With good metal hubcaps, they look good...

 

[exranger06]

I like the black steelies with chrome center caps on Crown Vics. I also like steel rims on trucks and stuff. The one thing I can't stand though are those white steel "trailer" rims:

=

 

[ahoier]

yea, I like the look of steel rims better....but yea, the whole rust side affect is what stinks....my oem wheels still look good, from 1988 anyways

But looking to buy a new set, and finding that everything looks wayyyy too "space age" and/or "over powering" for my simple little 4 door sedan....heh

 

[mongo161]

What ever happened to the steel wheels with the "White Walls" exposed?

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Popinski
I saw a black slightly modified VW Golf with Black steel wheels. It actually looked pretty good. I'm trying to imagine all these cars sold in the US with steel wheels and I think it'll look pretty good. Any thoughts?

Think of a present day Dodge Challenger with black steel wheels.. I think it'll look good.



Police Chargers come with black steelies, and I think they'd look GREAT on a Charger R/T.


I always ran black copcar steelies with dog-dish caps and trim rings on my 73 Satellite, and body-color steelies with dog-dish caps and trim rings on my '66 Polara. I think I have a pic of the Polara online somewhere.... here, not as good a shot as I remembered, but you can at least see the wheels:

I think I'll switch them to black at some point, getting tired of the body color.

As far as function goes, steelies are SO much better than aluminum that its ridiculous. They don't corrode, they don't bend as easily, and they're only slightly heavier.

 

[JHZR2]

The other thing that gets me is when cars like the fusion, Malibu, etc have steel wheels with hubcaps, but they are very sparse in design (lots of metal cut away)... And then covered with plastic. Why not just paint them silver? They would look like alloy wheels then...

17x7.5"... Could probably look decent if some like they painted them in the old days...

 

[eljefino]

I like the look, particularly with black steel/ chrome trim ring/ white letter T/A style tires/ chrome acorn lug nuts.

I also like minus size pizza cutter snow tires on steelies.

Alloy look plastic hubcaps have been a fraud going on twenty years now. Most Corsicas and cavaliers had them, not fooling anybody.

At least they threaded onto the lug nuts so they didn't rattle or go flying off.

 

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted By: SEMI_287
One word comes to mind: ricer.


I am completely lost on how steel wheels can be called that...if anything its the exact opposite.

Now 20" chromed wheels on a Honda...that qualifies for this appellation.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The other thing that gets me is when cars like the fusion, Malibu, etc have steel wheels with hubcaps, but they are very sparse in design (lots of metal cut away)... And then covered with plastic. Why not just paint them silver? They would look like alloy wheels then...

17x7.5"... Could probably look decent if some like they painted them in the old days...

They don't look like alloy wheels but the ones on the Tracker look pretty good.

They have a black hub cap and chrome lugs which looks fine IMO. They also have the valve stem protected behind the flange, which my winter steelies don't.
Alot of guys running 13" and 14" rubber in wider sizes get custom steelies made up for $60-80 each which is a deal for something like a 13x9" rim. Alloys if you can find them are hundreds each in these sizes and probably don't have the exact offset you want.

 

[JHZR2]

Agree, those tracker wheels look good. Plastic caps are a fraud and don't look good. I don't understand why we can't get good silver painted steelies for most cars. IMO they would look better...

 

[MNgopher]

Steel wheels in black, particularly on a properly treated pickup or SUV looks pretty sharp in my book. However, when they rust (and boy do they ever rust in the salt belt), they look like garbage.

Many of our fleet vehicles, including the '04 explorer I usually drive have steel wheels (in silver). They look trashy now with all the rust on them.

 

[Scum_Frog]

The problem is rust up here.

 

[XS650]

I put a set of Gen 1 Camaro rally wheels on my 1966 Corvair Corsa

With simple dog dish hub caps and no trim rings

14 inch is small now but was a big improvement over the stock 13 inch wheels.
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Alloy look plastic hubcaps have been a fraud going on twenty years now. Most Corsicas and cavaliers had them, not fooling anybody. LOL At least they threaded onto the lug nuts so they didn't rattle or go flying off.


My 2010 Prius came with fraudulent 5 spoke alloy look plastic wheel covers. Good news is that there were decent looking 10 spoke alloy wheels under the plastic.

This isn't my car but it has the same wheels. I used a stock Toyota part from another model car to plug the hole in the center of the wheel instead of leaving the hole like in this picture.

 

[dishdude]

I kinda like them. I love that the current Camaro LS has them.

 

[Spazdog]

Whatever happened to Polycast steel wheels?

The good looking ones like the '70s Thunderbird or Camaro Berlinetta? Not the ugly later ones like the 4 cyl Mustang or Tempo.

They were probably as expensive to make as aluminum wheels is my guess. But you did get corrosion resistant plastic without looking like you had a silver plastic frisbee stuck onto a plain black steel wheel.

 

[Popinski]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
I kinda like them. I love that the current Camaro LS has them.

Yeah, I also like the steelies on the new Camaro!!!

 

[rshunter]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The other thing that gets me is when cars like the fusion, Malibu, etc have steel wheels with hubcaps, but they are very sparse in design (lots of metal cut away)... And then covered with plastic. Why not just paint them silver? They would look like alloy wheels then...

17x7.5"... Could probably look decent if some like they painted them in the old days...

This wheel design is used to allow for easy and inexpensive styling changes to be made. In some cases it also results in a lighter total package. It also makes it possible for a dealer to refresh the look of a trade-in or lease return car at a very low cost.