[Bob Carriere]

Hi Drew

Once down to bare metal the rest is easy.

The bare steel has to be painted with a good oil based glossy paint as it will facilitate sliding the tire's bead down the rim.

I usually spray a metal prep or phosphoric acid which etches and turns the upper layer of the steel into iron phosphate. The I paint them with POR 15 Black glossy.... available at C T C.

Who ever took your tire off the rims must have a pail of tire lub.... pay him a visit with an empty glass jar..... you only need about 8 ounces for a life time of fun and slippery snotty sliding. Lub the rim and the tire bead it will greatly facilitate the installation.

You can try a wire wheel in a drill to clean the thread of the studs and a wire brush for cleaning shotguns on the nuts.
I was lucky to find a used tap and die on Ebay for the BSF thread.

How good are they???? depends.... how badly corroded...... how many of them are rusted badly??? If you have any doubts better look around on the forum for spare rims..... cheaper than a crack up at speed.

Make sure you rims are bot to deeply pitted...... I have seen some with actual pin holes in the 1/4 steel.... you don't usually see them until a good sandblasting.

If you use the POR 15 coating..... you can also apply it to the visible side of the rims for greater protection BUT..... the POR is so hard and slick that paint will not stick to it unless you cover the POR with a tie coat... then after 24hours for the tie coat to dry ...paint with at least 2 coats of OD...... I get my paint from Peter de Bella, the jeep parts dealer, at $38 US a gallon...... I have been pleased with the Randolph paint.... # 34087 and I usually pick it up at the Weare show on Conn. and save shipping....

Rapco parts company from Texas also sells Gillespie paint @ 34087 Lusterless "Khaki" olive drab.....

Marcus at Jeep Acres North of Barry Ont. I beleive has various paint stock.

Good luck and show us some pictures of your project....

Tubes..... make sure they have the proper long stem...... a bit of rim lub on them will allow them to get stretched and fall in place easier.

Cheers