Well anyway after much stuffing around with wheels I actually decided to buy the Black set of Snypers off BenJ.
I honestly could not find a set of 17's that would have suited the ute. Nothing that was available really tickled my fancy. I know one day Ill wind up having to go down the 17" path but hopefully by that time I will financially in a position to go and blow the coin on a set of simmons.That would make me happy.

Anyway here is what I got up to this afternoon.
Take one of these


Throw on a couple of coats of Selleys quick strip , give them a scrap and a wash and you coem up with this


They still need another coat of stripper to get off a few left over stubbon bits of old paint and clear coat but they are coming up quiet good I think. I was originally going to spray the wheels white so they were colour coded as was the early 90's craze but upon stripping them I found they are actually machine polished on the faces. So I will now mask them up properly and paint the sides of the spokes either gloss black or charcoal , then get out the sandpaper and remove a few scratches and marks and give them a good hit with the purple.
Im going to make the local tyre guys life miserable tomorrow afternoon. I will be getting him to chase up a new set of wheel centres to suit , a new set of chrome nuts and some rubber. Either 245/50 or 255/50 16 for the rear and 225/50 16 for the front.
While I am there I will get some better tyres I have here put on a pair of the Hurricanes and them put back on the car and have the tyres stripped off the other 2 16" rims so I can strip and paint them.
The plan is to have them all done and the tyres fitted and on the car by Friday afternoon at the latest so I can bring them out to Liverpoo Friday night. Then I might just give the Hurricanes a quick squirt and a polish and throw them on ebay for a laugh to see what I get for them. A really stuffed set went for $87 the other night without any tyres at all. You never know with the old retro craze taking off a tidy set with good tyres might swing me a couple of hundred. I would laugh so hard if they did. I cant believe people buy this kind of stuff!

Hey, they came up really good.

I look forward to seeing how they look in person on Friday.

BenJ

hope your ute ok,xd-xf's are the only model i've seen a bloke start with auto dip stick quicker then using the key..my cars a got an alarm,in a shed out of sight and 30kg back up alarm with big teeth lol

Thanks mate Im hoping the wheels come up ok.

Nah no real damage to the ute. Just the standard mark under the door handle from where they gained access. It may of already been there before hand but. What XE XE XF doesnt have this feature?
Found the bit of metal very similar to the bottom of a dipstick in the ignition barrel and the stereo half pulled out. I dare say they couldnt get the barrel to turn with only a short bit of metal so they decided to just get the stereo and then bailed when the missus and dogs disturbed them.
Cant believe it but. My old man has his 351 4 speed XD Fairmont Wagon pinched a couple of my old XD's have walked but at least we had owned them for more then a week before someone had a go!
Oh well these things happen. Just need to put measures in place to stop it. It gets parked up with the somewhat angry Doberman and the Red Cattle dog nowdays.

All the wheels have now been paint stripped and pressure washed. Tyres are ordered and centre caps have been located.
The time for big wheels on the ute is drawing nearer!!!!
Tossing up whether to paint the rims and get the tyres fitted Friday or just go down tomorrow arvo and have the tyres fitted and paint the rims on the weekend.

Pics???

You stole my second set of wheels you bugger! The ole ute is going look the goods once those go on......

i think those rims would look good just with the polished finished.???.
but its up to you of course...

Looks like you took my idea on board after all mate, they came up alright.

Sorry to here someone tried to steal the ute mate, at least you had the alarm on it. Bastards!

Hows that new stereo sound mate?

Josh

Its a bit dark to get pics of them all. They pretty much look like the pic in the last page.
Its only going to be the side of the spokes and the return painted. The polished front will stay.
I hope it looks good when it comes out of the wash.

The stereo is pretty sweet Josh. But as per always there is always room for improvement!

I got the wheels fitted this afternoon. I really wanted to wait until I had polished them upa nd painted the recess on the spokes but seeing as though I am still trying to decide whether to paint the return either black , charcoal or silver and the fact that with the cold weather and damp nights we are having at the moment I would have been pushing to have any paint dry correctly I decided to just get them fitted up and polish and paint them later. I will jsut remove one wheel at a time , sand , mask and paint. The rims can be polished on the car.


Its certainly growing on me the look.
It just now is screaming out for a drastic reduction in ride height!
I have put the 225/50 thats come with the rims on the front and got a set of 245/50 Falkens for the rear. It fills the guards fairly well , but there is enough clearance so Im not scraping when I am getting firewood etc.
Still have a few things to finish off on the wheels ,get the centre caps sorted etc but it is getting there.
Will be painting the trims and window surrounds this weekend in readiness for the windows to be tinted next Thursday.
Happy days here!

Im in the market for a ZL Fairlane on the cheap now too. Basically I want from the B pillar forward to do a full Fairlane conversion into the ute. If you know of anything in NSW please let me know!

Lookin' good! You're right though, needs to be lower now. Reckon the blackening of the wheel bits will set it off nicely!

Looks good mate, But I like them just the way they are but cant wait to see how they turn out.

Josh

Thanks guys.
Yeah RD it looks a bit like the Mav at the moment. Way too much ground clearance.

Dont worry Josh the wheels when finished wont look too different to what they do now. They will just look more finished.
Hopefully I should be able to get some pics of the new dash for you within the next couple of days. Im just waiting on it to show up!

Me and Dad are planning on doing the diff mods and swapping the diffs over sometime int he next couple of weekends so I now need an EA-ED Wagon handbrake cable as well.
If anyone has one or comes across one on their parts hunting missions can you let me know or grab it for me and let me know?