The 205/50R15 Falken Azenis RT-615s have been sitting in the basement for several months waiting to be mounted to some rims.
There are quite a few options for lightweight rims in the stock 15x6” size. I am not currently ready to spend $300 a piece on the 8 lbs SSRs, but I did look at getting some used Miata rims. Those seem to be at least $300 for a used set, and I wasn’t sure if they had the proper offset to be a stock legal rim for the Saturn. The 12 lb. OEM BBS rims from the 1995 M Edition Miata have an acceptable offset (45mm), but those are selling for $800 a set used.
The stock Saturn “Teardrop 3” alloys that I already had on the car are some of the lighter stock Saturn rims, but several Saturn websites mentioned the 12-slot “Sawtooth” style rim being the lightest Saturn OEM wheel. Searching the local self-service junkyards I cobble together a set of Sawtooth alloys. The price is reasonable, but, while the rims are straight, they are also badly in need of refinishing. The used “Sawtooths” weigh about 15.5 lbs on my bathroom scale, so they aren’t exactly light either.
Wheel painting goes fairly smoothly. I paint the first coats of gray primer outside—loosing a lot of the spray in the breeze. I decide to do the rest of the painting inside the garage. The next day I discover a few places where the old finish was flaky. I scrape and re-sand those for another coat of primer.
The rims have some corrosion along the inside where the tires seat, so I make sure to paint the entire rim. Painting just the backside and inner surface of the rim takes both 14 oz spray cans, but the glossy white enamel Rustoleum looks great. In hopes of helping them cure faster I bring the wheels downstairs and place them on a table under a heat register. The next day I buy a couple more spray cans of glossy white and a couple cans of clear coat and finish the outside of the rims.
I let the rims cure for a week before letting Belle Tire mount them for me. They do a great job and even install metal valve stems and fill the tires with Nitrogen. I neglect to bring the ¼” wheel spacers with me, but luckily there is plenty of clearance to the strus even with the wide 205/50R15 Falkens and 50mm offset stock rims. I pack up the worn 195/60R15 Kumho all-seasons in the trunk to go on the SW2 before our trip out East.