Dude, I am definitely
NOT a mega millionaire... but I am pretty broke after spending all my money on this silly old truck.
Been getting some odds and ends tied up on the pickup. Put in new taillight housings and lenses and picked up some repop backup light assmeblies. Wow, the backup lights are pretty dang nice! All metal pieces, no plastic and real glass lenses. Just need to get the appropriate hole saw next weekend and those will be mounted too.
Put some new spark plugs in the motor but discovered that a) my old spark plugs looks really good, and b) napa gave me the wrong plugs. So I need to get a new set.
Made 1/4 shim to get my cab and bed leveled and straight on the driver's side. I also got my new transfer case rear output flange painted and installed. Later on I need to decide how I'm going to do the parking brake. I'm thinking I can find a motorcycle rotor that will fit the flange bolt pattern, then I'll use a mechanical spot caliper from Wilwood and just need to make a simple bracket for the caliper.
I'm also having a bit of frustration over tires selection, or lack thereof, for my pickup. Ideally I'd like to run a 35x10.5R16 radial tire. These would fit with the skinny, knobby look of these old 4x4s, would fit perfectly on my stock 6.5" wide steelies, also be decent to drive on the highway. The bad news is that there is only one tire available in this country in that size, and it is an Interco SSR. The thing is they are very expensive ($350 per), they don't have very good reviews around the interweb, and I don't think that they will wear or balance, etc very well. The next closest ting would be a Q78-16 TSL bias ply, which I would love to have, but they don't wear well on the highway. And my truck will be doing a fair bit of highway driving.
After much deliberation I think I've come to grips with the fact that I'll just have to run a 315/75R16 tire like all the other kids in town. I want the BFG KM2s but they are pretty darn expensive too. So I may settle for the old faithful BFG All Terrains. Either way I'm not going to be able to run the black powdercoated stock steelies like i was planning on
And my Alcoas are really only 7" wide too. I'd prefer an 8" wide wheel. So the best thing I could find is this:
Black Rock Series 908 Yuma Matte Black
or this:
American Racing ATX Series AX3981 PTFE (teflon) Coated Black Mojave
or this:
Wheel Vintiques 82 Series
The aluminum wheels are an attractive option because they are easily 10-15 lbs lighter. And they'll show off my blingy red wilwood calipers.
What do you guys think?