The Wilted Leaf - Off to pastures New! 27/01/2024

[320touring]

Today, things escalated somewhat.

Since I got the car, the wheels have been horrific. Firstly due to shocking wheel trims, and latterly due to rusty steel wheels.

 

Today I started to resolve this.

Got over to the Unit for 3:30pm, and helped the car assume the position.

Had a quick inspection of the brakes front and rear

Both looking pretty good with little wear on the discs and plenty meat on the pads.

The suspension components and inner arched all looked clean and in decent order.

Time to turn my attention to the wheels.

The rear one was to be done first - it looked the slightly better of the two-

Bear in mind this car is a 2018, so only 6 years old. Suffice to say, I'm not particularly impressed by Nissan's steels...

I used a screwdriver to scrape off the flaking rust, then hit the wheel with a drill mounted wire brush. To say there was a substantial volume of detritus created would be an understatement..

Yeah, that's a fair whack of Ex Wheel.

The front wheel received similar treatment

Next up was rust treatment.

@juular had previously recommended this 

As an effective rust neutraliser and preventer, so on it went. Neat.

After 15 mins to do it's thing, it was rinsed off with water, and placed into the drying booth.

The orange colour is from the heater elements.

The drying booth was particularly effective, which was great news as it has taken ages to get to this point.

Once dried the wheels were masked and then primered (2 coats, front and rear). I didn't bother to mask the valves as the wheels were going black anyway

Primer makes things look better

But Matt Black (pound shop! No expense spent) can only do so much.

The drying booth was now the paint oven, and the 2 coats of black were dried off.

The wheels were mounted to the car

Eventually, at 10:45pm, it was back on its wheels, and looking a bit sharper. Front to rear was swapped too.

Now it's just the other side to do.

[somewhatfoolish]

Far canal; they look like they've been recovered from the Titanic.

[320touring]

3 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Far canal; they look like they've been recovered from the Titanic.

Actually, the canal is about 50m away🤣

[loserone]

I've got one here which might be in better nick if you need it?

It came off my visia after that C1 smashed into it and buckled it.  Probably straighter now..

[320touring]

After the Joy* of stripping, treating and painting 2 of the wheels for the Leaf,

I decided to do some research.

The specs of the wheels for the leaf are pretty standard Nissan fayre:

6.5" wide, offset of 40 and 16" diameter. They take a 205/55/16.

Some judicious googling yielded the following:

They look as if they should fit. Sub £200 delivered.

Obviously, it'd involve a new set of tyres rather than the ditch finders currently fitted, so likely another 300-350 on top.

The 4 tyres on the car have plenty tread, but I don't think it makes sense to swap them to new wheels.

The MOT is due on 28th Jan.

Question is:

Do I pap it in early to get a fresh MOT before buying new wheels and tyres?🤣

Or do I just buy the new rims and put it in for an MOT in Jan first?

[IronStar]

Surely you can buy some decent alloys for £200? Why bother with steelies, especially if you have them on already, and you resprayed two? If you really want steelies, respray the other two and put the money towards new tyres, or as you would buy them anyway, towards something else. 

[hairnet]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325699591155?chn=ps&_ul=GB&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=325699591155&targetid=2361400006200&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046617&poi=&campaignid=21697363421&mkgroupid=170400390467&rlsatarget=pla-2361400006200&abcId=10027088&merchantid=232687602&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-JG5BhBZEiwAt7JR6_8DpOeoFdCmbyclv1lF7JJauk8-BZBg1D_YF0jfGsCmGFx1qqCxYRoCty8QAvD_BwE

[320touring]

4 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Surely you can buy some decent alloys for £200? Why bother with steelies, especially if you have them on already, and you resprayed two? If you really want steelies, respray the other two and put the money towards new tyres, or as you would buy them anyway, towards something else. 

This Leaf is an oddity. They only built the base model Visia mk2 for 6 months, and it came with steels and trims. I don't want alloys on it.

I think doing the wheels that are on it is a false economy as they are pretty fucked.

[320touring]

3 minutes ago, hairnet said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325699591155?chn=ps&_ul=GB&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=325699591155&targetid=2361400006200&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046617&poi=&campaignid=21697363421&mkgroupid=170400390467&rlsatarget=pla-2361400006200&abcId=10027088&merchantid=232687602&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-JG5BhBZEiwAt7JR6_8DpOeoFdCmbyclv1lF7JJauk8-BZBg1D_YF0jfGsCmGFx1qqCxYRoCty8QAvD_BwE

Don't want 17s, don't want alloys, other than that, perfect 🤣

[hairnet]

never make an influencer

[somewhatfoolish]

Because cheap shite alloys weigh as much as the moon.

[IronStar]

19 minutes ago, 320touring said:

This Leaf is an oddity. They only built the base model Visia mk2 for 6 months, and it came with steels and trims. I don't want alloys on it.

I think doing the wheels that are on it is a false economy as they are pretty fucked.

Not a hill I’m willing to die on, but if I was spending £500-600 on wheels, I’d want nicest alloys I can get. IMO cars should have the biggest possible wheels that fit under the arches without making them look like donks, and steelies belong on 40s-70s land yachts, only exception granted for banded on small cars with aspirations of going fast. Opinions differ, and I understand you probably disagree, and it would be a rather stupid hill for me to die on. 😄

Those don’t look that bad, it looks like it’s mostly surface rust and (shit) paint flaking. How long will it take for new ones to look as bad as these if these are completely rusted after 6 years?

Obviously if you have the money to spend and brand new set of steelies wrapped in high-quality tyre would make you very happy, go for it. It’s about how you feel and what you like, not some random people off the internet. 
 

5 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Because cheap shite alloys weigh as much as the moon.

Factory alloys off a higher-spec trims or more upmarket models are usually decent at the very least IMO. Wolfraces, Kormetals and similar cheap shite that costs new like a set of decent used ones can get in the sea though. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

If you are going to buy new steel rims, which I would have done, I don't like aluminum rims, I would have painted them even when they are new, as the paint they come with from the factory is  poor.

[loserone]

6 hours ago, IronStar said:

IMO cars should have the biggest possible wheels that fit under the arches without making them look like donks, and steelies belong on 40s-70s land yachts

Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.  

 

All cars look better with steel wheels and high profile tyres

[320touring]

8 hours ago, IronStar said:

Not a hill I’m willing to die on, but if I was spending £500-600 on wheels, I’d want nicest alloys I can get. IMO cars should have the biggest possible wheels that fit under the arches without making them look like donks, and steelies belong on 40s-70s land yachts, only exception granted for banded on small cars with aspirations of going fast. Opinions differ, and I understand you probably disagree, and it would be a rather stupid hill for me to die on. 😄

Those don’t look that bad, it looks like it’s mostly surface rust and (shit) paint flaking. How long will it take for new ones to look as bad as these if these are completely rusted after 6 years?

Obviously if you have the money to spend and brand new set of steelies wrapped in high-quality tyre would make you very happy, go for it. It’s about how you feel and what you like, not some random people off the internet. 
 

Factory alloys off a higher-spec trims or more upmarket models are usually decent at the very least IMO. Wolfraces, Kormetals and similar cheap shite that costs new like a set of decent used ones can get in the sea though. 

We'll have to disagree on that, which is cool.

I like a good wheel on the right car. The Leaf is not the right car, and the OEM alloys are all shite. 😁

It'll either get new steels or nowt.

[tooSavvy]

These Vx steelies went onto MrGetz.

 

£30ea for shot blast + zinc undercoat ✔️

[Noel Tidybeard]

primera/qumquat/joke steels?

[Tayne]

Do you think the Leaf will fail the Mot in an expensive manner?

If not, and if youre keeping it, then new wheels and better tyres would be a good idea.

I'd be trying to eek more range from it it so would be looking at the weight of those steels versus Leaf or other Nissan alloys.

[loserone]

7 hours ago, Tayne said:

be trying to eek more range from it it so would be looking at getting the battery sorted

 

[320touring]

7 hours ago, Tayne said:

Do you think the Leaf will fail the Mot in an expensive manner?

If not, and if youre keeping it, then new wheels and better tyres would be a good idea.

I'd be trying to eek more range from it it so would be looking at the weight of those steels versus Leaf or other Nissan alloys.

I don't think it will, no.

I'm not too fussed about more range - it's only doing 6/700 miles a month with our usage. I am already getting decent economy at around 4.8miles/kWh, so can't complain. 

[JakeT]

I’d buy new steels and put decent rubber on them. For £200 for brand spankers wheels it seems pretty good to me, and then you’ve got four spare wheels!

[hairnet]

if the tyres on it might be a bit meh for the mot then a fresh set wont hurt for the scootish winter

[Dyslexic Viking]

Since driving an EV is making polar bears happy, how about buying a set of the rims below for the Leaf? And of course paint the bear white.

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, JakeT said:

I’d buy new steels and put decent rubber on them. For £200 for brand spankers wheels it seems pretty good to me, and then you’ve got four spare wheels!

Priority would be picking low rolling resistance tyres, they generally aren't much more than the ordinary yins.

[Dave_Q]

If you have enough axle stands wouldn't getting the existing steels dipped/blasted and painted be cheaper than new ones?

[320touring]

18 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

If you have enough axle stands wouldn't getting the existing steels dipped/blasted and painted be cheaper than new ones?

The challenge would be running them to the people doing the work as I'd have taken the wheels off the working car 🤣

I also think that's a lot of faff to end up with old wheels and old tyres back on.

 

Hammering away at the thinking this morning.

[320touring]

That mornings worth of thinking extended most of the week and I have a current cunning plan.

The tyres are all decent so I think I'll "refurb"🤣 the other two wheels and do a swap front to rear.

That should see me til the MOT and mean not putting a big chunk of cash out just before Xmas/ a trip to London we have planned for Jan

[320touring]

Back over to the unit to do the other two wheels today - all went well, and the improvement is huge. Well pleased with the results (just don't look too close!)

In between ingesting as many Volatile Organic Compounds as possible, the car was given a thorough clean out inside, and all the windows were done.

I also took the opportunity to turn my attention to the dusty motor bay..

A good spritz and rub down left it like this

Much improved. Then the Da appeared with some silicone bumper dressing, so a leisurely application was done whilst enjoying a cuppa.

Slowly but surely, it's getting a bit better.

Many cheers to @jaypee for his assistance today.

 

[hairnet]

hubcaps

ya coulda been in the cafe/pub/bed longer ken

 

[320touring]

6 minutes ago, hairnet said:

hubcaps

ya coulda been in the cafe/pub/bed longer ken

 

That's nae fun🤣