Help with Fuchs outer lip problem

Weaver · 12-17-2003, 01:23 PM

I did my post season cleaning of the inside of my Fuchs today and I tried a new cleaner. Needless to say, I 'm now panicking over the condition they look now. I saw in previous posts that Vasoline makes the Black look better, but will it remove the streaking? How do I remove the cloudiness from the outer ring. Am I doomed? Please be gentle, I'm feeling bad as it is.

Thanks for your time.

Weaver

Weaver · 12-17-2003, 01:30 PM

I forgot to post the pics.

n8marx · n8marx's Garage

Vaseline worked for me with a similar issue. However, polishing to a mirror finish is my current mission to combat the problem.

steve911 · steve911's Garage

My understanding is that vaseline is for the outer lip ONLY, not the black painted paddles. In speaking with the guys at www.carcareonline.com, they suggested washing the black, then hit it with 3M hand glaze, then wax that portion. They said it was a painted surface and wax was the best at protecting paint.

hope this helps - doesn't look like you did any permanent damage to the wheel. BTW, what did you use?

sammyg2 · 02:24 PM

I heard that vaseline was used on the black painted portion to try and make it shine. it is after all a matte finish. Al Reed says he used pledge furniture polish on it.

To make your outside (unpainted) lips less cloudy you need to use something like mothers aluminium polish to try and bring it back. I use wenol red to clean and blue to maintain. Both are available from Pelican I think.

It will not shine like chrome but you will be able to improve it with plenty of elbow grease.
If you want it to really shine you will have to get more aggressive with it as detailed in some of the articles at http://www.pelicanparts.com/911/911tech_articles.htm

steve911 · steve911's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by sammyg2
I heard that vaseline was used on the black painted portion to try and make it shine. it is after all a matte finish. Al Reed says he used pledge furniture polish on it.

back to my point about the PAINTED portion of the wheel. I wouldn't use vaseline on the body of the car (painted) - I'd put a coat of wax on it. I think the manual only talks about using vaseline on the unpainted portions of the wheel - I will look tonight

fintstone · fintstone's Garage

I believe that vasoline works well to clean the anodized surface (black or not) of a fuchs wheel. I would not use it on a painted surface myself. You would follow with wax after cleanining off the vasoline residue. I would not use a polish on an anodized surface. If a wheel is painted, then you would treat the surface as paint If polished (unless clearcoated) treat as aluminum.

Weaver · 12-18-2003, 04:22 PM

First, I just wanted to thank everyone for their help and input. I have only asked a few questions on this site and usually never get an answer. Sometimes I felt like I needed to be one of the regulars to get an answer, but y'all have been very kind.

Steve911- I don't want to say what brand I used but, its a family owned company and the CEO has a show on Speedvision and his first name is Barry. I used his "Gold Class" and applied it and washed it off in 15 seconds and not the prescribed 30 seconds on the label ( I timed it, I'm very anal ).

I let the rims sit with the vasoline on them overnight in our guest bedroom so they would be room temp over night. Here are the before and after pics:

The worst rim, which is the first and second pic, is still barely hazy, but much, much better. How long will this last? A previous post said to do it weekly until the cloudiness is gone. Is this true?

Again, thank you for your help.

Weaver

Rot 911 · 12-18-2003, 06:06 PM

Weaver I had similar "before" wheels and have always used vaseline on both the anodized rim and black spokes with no problems. I did the vaseline routine about once a month. Put a good coat on with one old t-shirt, let set for how ever long you feel like waiting, wipe excess off with another t-shirt and then buff out with a clean t-shirt.