Spare Wheel

We bought the SLT option package, which came with lots of the options we wanted but a few we really didn't care about.  One of the options we didn't care about was the alloy spoked wheels.  They're pretty enough, but the only reason we have them is because they were part of the package, and the package was cheaper and easier to get than the options we did want separately.

The only problem with the alloy wheels is that there are only four of them, and the spare was the standard stamped steel version.  That's OK if you just want to keep it as a spare, but the tires on the Jimmy aren't cheap, so I wanted to be able to include the spare in the rotation.  I just didn't want to drive around with three pretty wheels and one plain one on the truck 80% of the time!

So I went looking for a matching wheel for the spare.  A new one from the dealer was $350. Yikes!  I can buy three spare tires for that amount!  I checked a store that sells wheels, and they didn't call back the first time I asked about buying a wheel.  The second time I went there, they told me they had a wheel, but it was for a Suburban, not a Jimmy, so it didn't fit. Finally, I went to a junk yard, where they had just gotten in a set from a wrecked vehicle.  I looked the wheel over, decided it was OK and bought it for $125.

When I got it home, I found out that it wasn't an exact match.  It turns out that in the later model years, GMC painted the inside surfaces of the spokes and the 4X4 symbol on one of the spokes.  The earlier years, which I had, had those surfaces shiny metal.  

OK, not a giant deal.  This didn't look like a particularly tough painting job.  I cleaned up the wheel with dish detergent and got it looking pretty good.  There were a few dings in it, but nothing real obvious.  I got a small can of black Rust-oleum and went to work.  Two coats and one week later, I was ready to get the spare mounted on the new wheel.  Then I noticed that there was another difference between the old and new cosmetics.  The new wheel had a slightly darker finish all over than did the old one!  

Well, with front disk brakes, the front wheels tend to get dirty pretty quick anyway, so I haven't done anything about it beyond ignoring the situation.  I'm not putting the truck in any shows (if I did, I wouldn't have bought the wheel from a junk yard) so it's not getting inspected by anybody who would notice.  I'm able to include the spare in the tire rotation so I'm getting an extra 20% more mileage on the tires, too.

What I would do different the next time

I'd be more selective about the wheel I bought.  Even with the added paint, it still isn't a perfect match.

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