Alloys or refurbed steelies?

The morning after getting back from France this year I noticed our rear right tyre was quite flat. I pumped it up and it held for a day so I took it to the garage. The tyre was fine, it turned out that the steel rim was cracked. This I thought was a perfect opportunity to finally get some alloys (as one of my wheel trims - which were pretty nasty anyway - was missing and my rims looked horrible). However, having only bought new front tyres earlier in the year the timing wasn't perfect. I hate to not get my full value from tyres! Also, with winter coming it didn't seem the most appropriate time to get shiny new alloys.

Having looked into alloys I got more confused then when I first started. Do I stick with 16" or go larger? What colour (although I favour black) and what style etc etc? There are various pros and cons that I'm still getting my head around, but after spending too much time looking into it I decided to take another avenue. I picked up 4 steel rims with tyres for just £40 off ebay.

Caps primed and ready for their black paint

Steelies ready to be fitted

Refurb those rims

Over the years I've read on the forums about people refurbing their steelies and I liked the idea of that. As I mentioned, my steelies are pretty horrible and a bit rusty, but the ones I picked up were ok. So using this page as a guideline, I set about priming and spraying my new steel rims black. Fortunately, my MOT was the following day so I got the garage to swap all the rims and wheels over. With a bit of luck this will look alright for a couple of years.

We are planning to make tyre planters with the left over tyres!

Planters made from old tyres

Alloys for the future

When I do finally go down the alloy route I think I will stick with 16" as I can use one of the old steel rims for the spare, I know it will fit where the spare wheel currently goes under the van and thirdly, according to my mechanic the 16" stand up to a bit more abuse (i.e. potholes and going off-road through fields etc) as they generally have a wider tyre wall. Rimstyle.com seem like a good option in terms of choice and value. But for now we'll see how long the refurbed steelies stay half decent.