DIY Fuchs Faux Anodize 2023 (wip)

[scenicroute]

I put together a set of original 15x7"s and decided to give painting them a shot before spending the money on restoring them. My 76 is original paint so a drivers quality not concours wheel is in line with rest of the car. I ended up with 5 and decided to give one of the two previously and poorly repainted black ones a test spray can job. I figured I'd do a new post since paints/availability may have changed in the last 5-10 yrs.

I cleaned and sanded most of the old black repaint off - the weird dry pattern it had almost makes me think a prev owner had tried the float method and let it dry unevenly.

After a lot of reading prev posts on diy rattle can/faux rsr jobs I decided on rust oleum silver metallic #7271 and rust oleum crystal clear 2x in gloss (not sure if gloss or satin would have been the best choice).

Socal finally had a sunny day and I had a chance to lay 4x coats of silver down (approx 5 min between coats), waited 30 min. and then did 3-4x coats of the gloss crystal clear 2x on top (approx 6-7 min in between, they were thicker coats). It looked really good in the pics I saw but even from a few feet away it looked way too glittery/metal flake compared to the anodized finish. A satin clear coat finish may have toned it down but it still would have too much texture.




I decided to test the two "aluminum" paints I've used previously to replicate cad plating - which is a smooth uniform dull silver finish. I did 3 quick coats and few coats of the rustoleum gloss 2x clear. They both look a lot closer to the factory finish to me. I did a coat of rust oleum 2x satin clear along the top to see how it compared to the gloss.




I'll report back tomorrow when they've fully dried, but these both show a lot of promise to me. The left is Rustoleum aluminum and the right is Krylon dull aluminum. Im thinking I will respray my test wheel with the rust oleum aluminum and layer up the gloss clear for the closest look. The gloss seems to give the appearance of more depth like the anodize.

Any input/thoughts are appreciated.

[Bill Douglas]

Looks nice. Good luck.

[EC900]

Looks nice. Is that rattle can Rustoleum an enamel or lacquer?
I picked up some Rustoleum matte black lacquer (silver out of stock) and contemplated doing my faded out Fuchs daily drivers, but that patina is a premium.

[scenicroute]

Update - Here's a pic of Rustoleum "aluminum" with "gloss crystal clear" on top. The krylon dull aluminum was a little brighter and closer in color to the real anodized Fuchs color, but it was only indoor rated and Ive had better luck with rustoleums in the past so I decided to stick with the rustoleum.



I let it dry for about a week and then taped off the petals and scuff sanded the surfaces that were going to get painted satin black. Im just waiting lower humidity to paint the black. Im pretty happy with the results so far.

[Dpmulvan]

You should do your sneakers too.

[na2ub]

Looks good. Did you use quarters to cover the lug holes? Thats what i did. Worked great.

[scenicroute]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

You should do your sneakers too.

Remove the authentic road patina from my chucks? NEVER, they've been all over this country and across oceans with me.

[scenicroute]

Originally Posted by na2ub

Looks good. Did you use quarters to cover the lug holes? Thats what i did. Worked great.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out what I had at least 15 of that were the same/correct size. On one it pulled a little bit of paint up with it when I popped it out. I thought about trying to remove them earlier in the curing but thought the potential damage to tacky paint outweighed the risk.

I don't know if a vending machine will be happy with my silver/clear/black/clear coated quarters though.

[scenicroute]

Originally Posted by EC900

Looks nice. Is that rattle can Rustoleum an enamel or lacquer?
I picked up some Rustoleum matte black lacquer (silver out of stock) and contemplated doing my faded out Fuchs daily drivers, but that patina is a premium.

I used the rustoleum satin black and then satin clear over it. Im not sure if regular rustoleum is lacquer or enamel but I know one doesn't like being layered over the other. Not sure which order is ok, but thought best to stick with the same paints. I thought the krylon dull aluminum was a little closer in color to the stock anodized aluminum, but stuck with the rustoleum aluminum.

[scenicroute]

Well they're done. Coastal San Diego has been plagued with humid gloomy weather, so I think they would have come out a little better in dryer weather. I wasn't patient enough and did 3 when the wind was blowing in a direction to blow some saw dust on them from the construction site next door but overall Im pretty happy with them and they'll work well with my OP car. It's a well maintained driver but shows some road wear and 4 fresh restoration wheels would have looked out of place.

Final thoughts/tips/improve for next time -
•Definitely buy the premium 3m vinyl painters tape.
•Paint right after applying the tape on the pedals. It takes a while to apply and I did 3 and had to wait 2 days to paint. To get the curves right you have to stretch it and a it started to come up in a few spots. I was able to save it but one of those areas came up again right after painting and caused a bit of the paint to pull up.
•Not sure how to remedy this, but even the nice blue 3M masking tape did leave some residue/permanent alteration of the clear coat on the silver petals. You have to look really closely, but I tried to clean a bit with rubbing alcohol and the rattle can clear didn't really like it.
•the 2X rustoleum cans shoot a ton of paint/clear out. I got a few runs on the side of the pedals, not sure sure the best way since you have to really layer it on to get the anodize look
•clean, clean and clean again. I've learned your paint surfaces can never be too clean and it's prob the single biggest variable in the outcome of your paint project. Especially with rattle cans.
•Prob worth using 2k clear next time for the pedals, it's a lot stronger 2 part clear available in rattle cans.

Hope this helps. It's kinda a pain in the butt. Would I do it again? Probably, the money I saved on restoration will cover a good chunk of the tires. I've also noticed a lot more Fuchs wheels than I initially thought have silver painted sections now that Ive been looking closely at cars n coffees, shows etc.

[Old H2S]

They look fine.

[nene]

I used the 2k clear coat and it's holding up fantastic. It is hard as a rock!

Serge

[hheine]

Looks great. Well done

[scenicroute]

Originally Posted by nene

I used the 2k clear coat and it's holding up fantastic. It is hard as a rock!

Serge

Nice, I was definitely thinking 2k Clear would have been the call. In my experience it's the best you can get out of a can.

[JonT]

looks really sharp nice job! any pics on the car for completion purposes?