Fuchs Project! (Many pictures)

[Adam]

Images hosted remotely for bandwith-saving purposes

My 15x7 Fuchs are pretty badly beat up. They've had several coats of cheap paint applied, over each previous coat by distant previous owners and lately they've been really bugging me.

So I pulled them off the car.





Some close-ups, so you can see what I mean:







They're a tight fit in the back of the beater!

[Adam]

After having the rubber and the valve stems pulled off by a local shop, I laid them out on an old pallette that I've got, to protect what's left of my lawn.



I had already organized some "Environmentally Friendly" paint stripper, which I doubt, but it sure smelled fruity! I enjoyed a pleasant high for the duration of this part of the project!



Within seconds of painting on some of the "Citristrip" gel, the paint started bubbling and lifting! I got stuck into the wheels with some stainless steel scourers that I had.







After a total of around 2.5 hrs or a repeated apply-wait-scrub method, this was the result!



It seems that these wheels were once really nicely prepped, but someone had decided to paint over them with cheap black paint, which had since had many more touch-up coats. Someone's already done the hard work on this project!



A quick rinse with the hose, after washing the wheels down with hot, soapy water and they're ready for some light sanding and then polishing, which I intend to do by hand with "Mothers Mag & Aluminium Polish".

I'll then mask up the wheels, CamB style, and then paint with Wurth Satin Black. I'll definitely be leaving the petals and centre caps polished!

I should have the project, complete with a switch to 205/55-15 or 205/50-15 rubber completed by mid-week. I'll be back with another update shortly. Right now, I'm off to sand and polish!

[k9handler]

very nice!

[Matt Holcomb]

Adam,

I thought this post was going to be a striptease! The last four images didn't load -- until I hit refresh!

Wow, the Fuchs came up a treat!

Great strip show!


Matt Holcomb
MFIWDP
1974 911 Carrera 2.7 (RoW)
Dedicated Homepage
Engine Rebuild Homepage
Pelican Gallery Profile

That's gonna look great. It's a messy job, but the results are really satisfying.

[Schrup]

Adam, did you remove the 25 wieghts off the back of each wheel? After I cleaned mine up & painted them, the tire shop had to use only a few on each to balance them. You'll be amazed at the difference the new paint makes.

[trj911]

You made it look quite easy. Be sure to show us the final pictures.

[old_skul]

Nice! Those will look great once you get them repainted.

I was wondering why you were wearing shorts, but I guess it's summer there!

[steve911]

Adam--
looking good! and you made it sound so easy.

[BGCarrera32]

Hey Adam,

FWIW, I used Wurth Black laquer on mine from a spray can. It came in a really tall can with the "SA Besto" label on it...must mean "our best" or something. Anyway, it had a fan tip on it that was a total pain and didn't point or shoot or cover well at all where I needed it to. Just something to be aware of. I think a far better soultion would be to use an automotive detail gun, the proper prep, and an acrylic urethane black for a much more durable finish. I don't know how much you want to spend, but I thought by far the hardest part was the prep and mask off. Why not use better paint?

-BG

[Adam]

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys.

I spent all last evening hand-polishing the wheels and while the rims came up really nicely, the centres still have quite a cloudy look to them. Could it be that they're still anodized?

I'll post a picture later on. Right now, I'm off to try the buffing wheel!

[Victor]

Nice work Adam - now go get a sun tan you crazy kid!

[Adam]

Ok, after an hour of solid polishing (and a little light sanding), I'm pretty sure that the centres are still anodized and it's not coming off! It looks bad, because the rim lips have all come up beautifully, but the centres now just look a different colour. The centre caps are even different again!

I doubt I'm going to be able to get through the finish, so I think I'll just take the easy route and repaint the entire centres black.

I'm bummed, as I was only going to repaint them black anyway, but when I saw the exposed petals, I was going to go to all the extra effort, but I really need the car back on the road.

[tangerine911e]

Adam,

Those wheels look great!

I had the same problem with my centre caps. I had two sets - one came with the mid eighties vintage wheels which cleaned up a treat after lots of sanding. The set off my old wheels (which were brand new a couple a years ago after someone nicked the originals) don't want to clean up no matter how much environmentally unfriendly chemical product and sandpaper I throw at them!

They have ended up a slightly different shade of 'polished', but fairy close. Maybe run the wheels without the caps in the meantime if the car needs to get back on the road. The polished petal look is a great one!

Ash

[dvkk]

Spray the centers with oven cleaner. It will remove the anodizing just like your paint stripper took off the paint. I found that warm temps are required to make it work, and leave it on for 30 min. You have to spray enough on to keep the surface covered in foam. Rinse off and polish.

[dd74]

Adam - looks good. So will you be painting them black again? I was sort of hoping you might post a pic of them as is and mounted on the car - just to see how that setup looks.

[Adam]

Well, I've had another trademark change-of-heart!

I had started to mask them up, but now I'm going to strip them back again and hit them with oven cleaner. I also heard that wrapping the wheels in cling-wrap helps keep the heat of the oven cleaner "reaction" in and remove the anodizing even better.

BG, I had already ordered and paid for the Wurth paint before your suggestion, but it sounded good. If I end up re-doing them, I'll look into the Lacquer. Thanks!

More photos to follow soon!

[Fishcop]

Ditto on the oven cleaner.... It's what I used last year and worked very well to remove the anodising, it did take two applications though.

[Adam]

Well, I just washed off the first lot of oven cleaner. It has made a mess of the wheels and for a second, I thought I had ruined them. After hitting the stains with the power-polisher/buff, the marks disappeared. Whew!

I can see shiny, shiny metal underneath! I'm currently waiting for my second treatment of oven cleaner to run its course (30 minute applications), so that I can hit the wheel with the buff again.

At last I'm seeing some results! Still waiting for my Wurth paint to arrive though...

[Adam]

Here's a few update pictures...



Next time, I'll mask up the rim/lips, the friggin' oven cleaner left some nasty stains. Took me ages to get them out, by wet sanding and persistant polishing.



After about 1.5 hours of ball-busting polishing, I reached a satisfactory result. It's hard work, guys. Don't underestimate this job!



Here's the wheel, compared to what I was almost content with...

Tonight, I'll mask up the rim sections, and unmask the centres for some dedicated, heavy oven cleaner treatment. I'm going to try the scourer and rubber glove technique again tomorrow, to see if that yields better results before washing off the oven cleaner. Polishing in all the curves at the side of the petals is a major PITA.

If someone made a 1" buffing wheel, they'd sell around here like hotcakes.