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Rims for the Lumina! (finally)


Grand Moff Joseph

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I have always wanted real rims for my Lumina, but despite the myriad of aftermarket options, I have always been in love with the stock rims offered by GM. Now, I have seen many of these rims online and in junkyards, but there was invariably something wrong with them, or they were outrageously expensive. (A Chevy dealer's parts counter quoted me over $500 for each OEM rim!)

 

I thought all hope was lost, until yesterday. Then, I struck a goldmine! (insert witty Trebek comment here)

 

I just won, via Ebay, a brand new set of 15" OEM rims for my car! That's right, these rims are brand new, still wrapped in their boxes, and have never been used! BTW, remember that price quote of $500 a rim?? Well, the hell with that - I just got the whole set of four for a total of $260 shipped!

 

Here's a link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8040055512&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ABCA%3AUS%3A11

 

BTW, I'll gets pics when the rims come in, but I will not be mounting them on the car until the weather improves here. :)

 

So, now the dozens of people who have begged me to get some real rime can rest easy. :lol:

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nice that they will fit the tires that you already have, and they are brand new so i'm not really gona argue with the price. but i myself woulda held out for the 16 inch offering of them

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nice that they will fit the tires that you already have, and they are brand new so i'm not really gona argue with the price. but i myself woulda held out for the 16 inch offering of them

 

Yeah, if I could find a set of OEM 16's for a decent price I woulda hit those so quick.

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Nice find man! Did Euro Luminas ever get 15" wheels? IIRC, just vans got the 15" version. Nonetheless, you can't beat that price or condition anywhere. Wait until the salt goes away before you mount them.

 

Oh and don't throw those hubcaps away!! They're rare.

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nice that they will fit the tires that you already have, and they are brand new so i'm not really gona argue with the price. but i myself woulda held out for the 16 inch offering of them

 

Yeah, if I could find a set of OEM 16's for a decent price I woulda hit those so quick.

 

Truth be told, I would have preferred the 16" rims as well. But, since I have R15 tires, I'd have to buy a whole new set of tires, which would be stupid (not to mention really expensive), seeing as how my current set of Michelins only have 10K on them.

 

So, if I got the 16s, I'd have to wait until I got a new set of tires, and I decided that the rims weren't worth THAT much to me.

 

BTW, as for my hubcaps, what. you mean these suckers??

wax5.jpg

 

 

Anyway, that's part of the reason why I wanted those rims - so I can remove the hubcaps and save them from further wear/tear! :)

 

 

 

ALSO:

The auction for these has ended, but the same seller on Ebay was offering a brand new set of 16" Lumina rims. You can email him and ask if he is selling again:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8040056557&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ABCA%3AUS%3A41

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Nice find man! Did Euro Luminas ever get 15" wheels? IIRC, just vans got the 15" version. Nonetheless, you can't beat that price or condition anywhere. Wait until the salt goes away before you mount them.

 

Oh and don't throw those hubcaps away!! They're rare.

 

No, I've seen some Luminas in junkyards with 15" rims on them. Of course, they were curbed to hell though. :cry:

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Based on the picture in the auction, they might be, although the auction does not state specifically either way. I assume they are polished somewhat, as they are "brand new, in box", and I would think that they would be polished when they leave the factory.

 

Either way, I'm going to clean them up when I get them. Any good products to use for polishing aluminum rims??

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Not if they're NEW, no...

 

that said, the wheel in the pic doesn't really look all that healthy.

 

I emailed the seller about that very issue. He said that the rims were a little dusty, and that there was a little 'residue' left on that rim when he pulled the plastic shrink wrapping off of it to take the pic.

 

Now, I took his auction at its word, so if the rims turn out to be sick looking, there will be hell to pay. On that note, if the rims are 99% new and need a little cleaning attention in one spot or another, I think I can handle that. Besides, after seeing thr work some of y'all do to bring even the most rusted rims back to life, anything is possible. :lol:

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I just can't imagine why he wouldn't clean or wipe off some "residue" before taking pics for an auction...

 

that's like trying to sell a 20 year old car and claiming the original paint is mint, but in the pics the car is soaking wet.

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Do you need center caps for those? I can get you a set for $20 (at the j/y they're $5/cap) plus whatever shipping would be.

 

One other thing. When I put my Euro wheels on, the "acorn" original lug nuts wouldn't hold the wheel on the car, the wheels were too deep. Is this normal?

 

I didn't really care. I went out and got chrome lugnuts instead. I was just wondering. FYI just something you might run into when going to install.

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Nice find man! Did Euro Luminas ever get 15" wheels? IIRC, just vans got the 15" version. Nonetheless, you can't beat that price or condition anywhere. Wait until the salt goes away before you mount them.

 

Oh and don't throw those hubcaps away!! They're rare.

 

I have a 1991 Lumina Euro 3.1 and it came with the Stock 15" polished aluminum rims. they need to be de-oxidized lol.

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Yeah, if I could find a set of OEM 16's for a decent price I woulda hit those so quick.

 

My friend has a set of 4 with mounted tires he was looking for $200. Tires were brand new and the rims were in great condition. He tried to sell them to me but I think their hideous so I passed up on them...

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i take it they were the premium wheels at the time.. i think?

 

Well, I double checked all of this with the 1990 Chevy Lumina dealer brochure that I have, and as it turns out, 15" rims were not available in 1990. Your choices were:

 

14" wire hubcaps (base model std.)

15" Euro hubcaps (Euro std., on my car in pic on page 1)

16" aluminum rims (opt. on Euro only)

 

I saw a set of those euro hubcaps at the j/y this weekend....1st time I have ever seen them in person...

 

Yep, those hubcaps are certainly hard to find. I think I have only seen 2, maybe 3 other Luminas with those hubcaps ever. Despite their implicity, they fit in so well on the car though...:)

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