DIY RSR Fuchs Wheel Project

I have always loved the RSR finish on Fuchs wheels, so I decided to refinish mine that way. Started with a pair of 7 x 16s that had seen better days. They came off a turbo, and had been painted body color (bronze) with polished rims. They had some kind of clear on them that was peeling off.


Whoever applied the paint was serious about it--my first attempt to blast using walnut shells was futile, as was aluminum oxide, even at 80 psi. I finally succeeded using 80 grit glass at 100 psi.

All cleaned off, beginning to tape up the petal with flexible body work tape. Cut slits on the inside of the radius to prevent pull-back.

A challenge was getting the petal masking to match from petal to petal. One the first petal mask looked about right, I used a pencil to make scratch marks across the tape, yielding a guide line. It's not possible to shape the paper around the compound curves of the petals, but you can index certain reference points, like the inside of the center cutout and the outer edges of the petals.



Petals outlines taped off.


Cleaned the aluminum with wax and grease remover, ready for paint.

The body paint store I use recommended this paint. It's intended for renewing black trim, and does not require primer to adhere to raw aluminum. It goes on well, and seems pretty forgiving if touch-up is needed. It's pretty nasty stuff, so wear a respirator. It stunk up the whole house for the night.



A couple light coats, then three fairly heavy coats, and it looked like this:



After 24 hour of dry time, all that tape came off. There was a bit of cleaning residue still drying when this shot was taken.



Overall, it looks fairly good, although there are a few tiny nicks and marks in the surfaces of the petals where the knife blade nicked up the natural aluminum finish near the center of the petals. I'm going to try to remove those in the blaster, after protecting the black painted areas. Hopefully, it won't require a full re-mask. But, if I mess up the paint, I can aways re-shoot.



The final step will be shooting satin clear over the whole thing. I may, on another set, try polishing the outermost part of the lip, like Magnus does on the wheels he does, but I'm not sure exactly how to gloss clear that part while maintaining satin clear on the inside parts. Probably more masking will work. I may buy stock in a tape company.

[carlb]

Looks great so far. Looking forward to seeing the final results.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Thanks. I forgot to mention how many tool marks there were on the wheel--no two petals were exactly alike; they had different radii and different bevels at the edges. I considered smoothing them out, but did not do so, as you have to be about six inches away to see them.

I also made the aluminum part of the petals wrap around the sides a bit less than on real RSR wheels. Still deciding if I like the look, or whether I'll have to redo it to be more faithful to the original.

[drcoastline]

WOW Corgi, came across this thread after looking at your bumper mod. Great job on that wheel can't wait to see the rest.

So to clarify, the aluminum is finished in 80 grit glass bead? I wasn't quite sure if that was your finished surface or just what you used to remove the paint. I use the SEM as well great stuff.

[TheMetalSurgeon]

trim black is super wear resistant,you'll have great luck with it

[nene]

I recommend using the 2K clear, which I recently used on my freshly painted wheels. After
the clear coat completely dried, it felt hard as a rock!

Serge

[TheMetalSurgeon]

Originally Posted by nene

I recommend using the 2K clear, which I recently used on my freshly painted wheels. After
the clear coat completely dried, it felt hard as a rock!

Serge

if you choose that direction ,id go with a satin clear,otherwise you'd lose the finished sheen of the trim black.
Ive ran wheels with no clear coat and been in perfect shape 18 mths later.

[Canada Kev]

When you do your other wheels, use some fine line 1/8", 3/16" or quarter inch tape. Cutting the tape to make it go around corners is a time waster and, as you discovered, prone to marking up your raw wheels. The narrow tape works great and I've used it in the body shop years ago and on a set of Fuchs I refinished a while back. Any body shop supply store should carry it.

Regarding polishing the lips and clearing, if you use a satin clear, the polished part will still look far more smooth and shiny than the rough blasted petals so I wouldn't worry about that.

To polish, you could jack up the whole rear of the car, mount the wheel to a rear axle, and run the car in gear to get your wheel turning. Much easier to polish just the lip that way and it keeps the residue fling off more manageable. Plus, you wouldn't have to mask what you don't want polished.

If you put some lug nuts in the holes when you spray the black, you'll avoid filling up the mating surface with paint which is always a good thing.


My Weidman finished wheels just after I received them. It's difficult to see in these pics, but the polished lip is not really shiny, but has kind of a dull lustre. I think Harvey polishes the lip before clear anodizing the entire wheel

[AG81]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

^
Love this product......

Thanks to all for your advice.

drcoastline, what you see is the blasted petals in their natural state. The only paint on the wheel currently is the black.

Metal Surgeon and Canada Kev, great advice, especially on the tape. I bought some thinner stuff for the next go around.

Seems everyone confirms the goodness of the trim black. Must be some evil stuff in there, though. I shot it outside wearing a respirator, and when I took off the respirator, I could still really smell it in the air, even outside, and I could even smell it inside the house.

I started building model cars at a young age, and had sort of a regular factory going for years until I discovered other things. Back then, nobody even thought about wearing a respirator. Who knows how many fumes I inhaled over the years? Ain't dead yet, but my tolerance for paint fumes and other noxious stuff has gone down. Maybe my liver is saying no mas.

[Reiver]

Looks good Corgi but I don't think you went deep enough on the petals with the tape....look at the wheel Harvey refinished for a comparison.

Originally Posted by Reiver

Looks good Corgi but I don't think you went deep enough on the petals with the tape....look at the wheel Harvey refinished for a comparison.

Yeah--I mentioned that in post #4. I made it a little different from the standard RSR to see if I liked the look. Still debating, but may move it around. I have to reblast the petals on the one I did already to get rid of some tool marks anyway.

If there is a time consuming or difficult way to do something, I'll find it. And if I can manage to injure myself in the bargain, so much the better!

[drcoastline]

Corgi- any more progress on your wheels?