Back when the 330i was released BMW had somewhat of a problem as in the stock brake discs and calipers were too big for the regular 15" steel rims to give them enough room. So BMW being as crazy as they are they offered their customers a steel rim option next to the range of aluminium winter wheel options in the form of a 17" steel rim.

17" Steel Rims

So around 10 years ago a friend of mine who used to work at a BMW dealership got a hold of a set of these and didn't really have any use for them so I bought them for 50 bucks and put them into the garage. The next winter my Mom's E36 got to put them on as winter tires.

I could see their potential even though they did look a bit overkill on the E36 with stock suspension. Problem was the 17" steelies require spacers in the front axle which we didn't put on so the wheel continuously scratched the inside wheel well during full lock so off they went again.

These wheels were in hibernation for 8 years until I had them refurbished around 2 years ago by a wheel shop near my place with really excellent results after some unsuccessful attempts of trying to sand down the paint myself :)

The guy took 80 bucks for all four wheels and assured me they were straight and fit for use. They sat another 2 years in hibernation in the garage up until two weeks ago when I found a set of mint Continental TS815 205/50R17 93V winter tires on EBay...

Bargained them for 40 bucks and off to the wheel shop again...

Had them mounted and the wheels weighted. The guy in the shop told me a bit of good news which is that the particular tires I bought had been fitted with an adhesive cover on the insides (either by the factory or aftermarket) which allows for up to 20 nails to penetrate the tire without lasting damage. Simply pull out the nail and keep going - awesome!

Insides painted plain black, outside classic silver...

So off to the DIY shop after leaving 60 bucks for the mounting and weighting...

Looking good me thinks. Here the final state with wheels installed...

It might not come across in the pictures but these steel rims look absolutely stunning and really work well with the lines of the E46.

Now in their second winter and after around 20.000km they've lost most of that shiny new silver look even when applying quality cleaners. Also the rear right rim is showing substantial surface corrosion...

Thing is this might be wheel I mentioned above that I tried to 'sand down' which didn't work very well. My guess is that I opened the surface somehow with my tools and the shop's paint somehow didn't protect the metal sufficiently because of that. All other wheels are dirty but free from surface corrosion.

Steem on!