Fuchs are mostly Magnesium

[RickM]

Spoke to a chemist last night. Asked if if he knew about magnesium. He says "as a matter of fact I know a little bit about it, what's your question"?

I bring up this thread. He says:

Pure magnesium is very shiny, more so than any aluminum alloy. Pure magnesium is packed in mineral oil as it is extremely reative. If water makes contact it goes up. It is also an extremely soft metal in it's pure form. The strips used in 8th grade lab are made of a magnesium alloy.

Just thought I'd throw this in.......

[JTO]

Rick,

What you're saying is true of sodium but not magnesium. Sodium is hightly reactive with water and is packed in minineral oil but not magnesium.

Troy

[nick-moss]

Just when I thought we were reaching a consensus I find conclusive proof on EBay that Fuchs are indeed magnesium

Original porsche magnesium wheels. 6x16

[trj911]

Well...if ebay says it, it must be true!

[island911]

Originally posted by dvkk
OK, so why is the wheel marked with AS10.62, a magnesium alloy specification?

Where do you get the idea that 'AS10.62, is a magnesium alloy specification' ?

There is an AZ61 general purpose mag-alloy, and an AZ80 used for highest strength (but simple) mag forgings.
. . .it seem a bit of a leap to say the marking is a (mag) material call-out. . .but if it helps sell them on ebay. . ..

fwiw, tooling is often coded with the die number (among others) so that if/when a problem arises, the right die can be inspected.

[Randy Webb]

"anal. is a bit harsh"

- Sorry, but I could not resist. You are not the first and - of course - I'm sure you've never, ever heard that joke before.

BTW, I think we should make our wheels out of lithium. They would be lighter, would make driving MUCH more exciting, and we could eat them if unhappy.

[JTO]

Randy, I think lithium is another one of those metals that hate to get wet (e.g. it reacts violently). Today, with the rain, we would be burning more than rubber

Troy

[vash]

JTO is correct, sodium is the stuff you dump into a dish of water in chem class just to watch it spin and dance around on the surface. magnesium strips were held with hemostats and held into the burners to light them into tiny suns.

[dvkk]

Originally posted by island911
Where do you get the idea that 'AS10.62, is a magnesium alloy specification' ?

I posted this link on page 1 of this topic, perhaps you missed it?

http://members.tripod.com/Mg/mggen.htm#alloys

Look back to Jerry's post at the top of pg.3 of this topic, he explains what the numbers and letters mean.
The AS stands for Al, and Si. The numbers are the percentage composition.

[island911]

Sorry, man. . .doesn't 'pass the pale' with me.

I've seen AZ##, (AZ.##A-T6, heat treated) or AS## But never AS##.##, as a mag call-out.

If it does refer to a material, one has got to consider that Porsche is not going to be so forthcoming with their alloy recipe. Why would Porsche mark a part with the material call-out? . . .that's what internal documentation is for.

Also, far too many have worked with these wheels (welding, Anodizing -hint-hint-) to establish that indeed these Fuchs are an Aluminum Alloy.

Just my 2˘ worth. . .perhaps Wayne will get Warren to say what's really right.

----------
Edit: again, from my earlier post:
Excellence article on Fuchs, (issue#93 pg 107) says the alloy used to make Fuchs is "AlMgSil or AA6082."

AA6082 is; Al 0.9Mg 1.0Si 0.7Mn

--OR--
0.9% Mg (Magnesium)
1.0% Si (Silicon)
0.7% Mn (Maganese)
97.4% Al (Aluminum) [implied balance]

[Jack Olsen]

A (barely) related question: does the term 'Mag Wheels' come from the use of magnesium in performance wheels in the late sixties and early seventies?

[john_colasante]

Originally posted by RickM
Spoke to a chemist last night... He says...

If you're ever on "MIllionaire", don't use this guy as your phone-a-friend lifeline.

[KTL]

Originally posted by JackOlsen
A (barely) related question: does the term 'Mag Wheels' come from the use of magnesium in performance wheels in the late sixties and early seventies?

You are correct!

[82SuperC]

I have to agree that albeit the AS1.62 does look like a material designator, and coincidentally appears to be of the magnesium family, it doesn't appear to be totally correct in format as the specification states that alloy composition is listed in round numbers. So the 1.62 does not make any sense. My feeling is that this is a FUCHS designator that we probably will not be able to decipher.

Reading from the links supplied:

"The letters are followed by numbers which represent the nominal compositions of the principal alloying elements in weight% rounded to the nearest whole number; thus AZ91 means the alloy Mg-9Al-1Zn. "

No periods in the specification!

My $.02 for what it's worth

[dvkk]

Originally posted by 82SuperC

No periods in the specification!

True, However if you refer to George's pic on the first page you will see that in the part number above there are meaningless periods as well. "911.361.020". When the parts department guy keys in the part number, he ignores the meaningless periods.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally posted by dvkk
True, However if you refer to George's pic on the first page you will see that in the part number above there are meaningless periods as well. "911.361.020". When the parts department guy keys in the part number, he ignores the meaningless periods.

Can........almost........reach........last........ straw.....

[RickM]

Quote: "If you're ever on "Millionaire", don't use this guy as your phone-a-friend lifeline."

Heh heh, I'm going to have to give him a piece of my mind. More research now necessary........

[RickM]

This is who will have the answers:

http://www.otto-fuchs.com/deutsch/index.html

[mb911]

Ok

First I must be having problems with my computer I tried responding 3 times and nothing.

If you like to do the test we can send all your fuchs to me and I will test weld on them if the arc glows green than it is magnesium if it glows bluish than it is aluminum as its major alloying element. The deal would be that I can keep them all right?

Side note all the fuchs I have welded on glowed bluish which is a dead give away. I also have a chemical test that you can do to determine if mag or alum. I will find out what it is if intrested.

Ben
77 911 3.0
75 914-6 2.7

[thabaer]

Originally posted by RickM
This is who will have the answers:

http://www.otto-fuchs.com/deutsch/index.html

Good call, a quick look produced a page with this:
1964: Otto Fuchs makes the first mass-produced aluminium wheel, the legendary "vane-type” Porsche wheel.
WTF is a vane-type wheel ?

Hit sort of a dead-end on the site at that point.