Fuchs refinish question

[Todd Simpson]

I have nice factory finish late fuchs and I'd like the early style finish, painted between the spokes only.

What are the chances I can strip off the factory paint without harming the anodizing? Can I then just mask and repaint for a look similar to the early wheels?

FWIW, I do not want the polished look nor do I want to send these out.

[scottb]

The search button is your friend: anodizing
Good luck!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by scottb
The search button is your friend: anodizing
Good luck!

Actually?.....Al Reed is your real friend for these. Okay, I'll shut up.

[Todd Simpson]

Please read my post. I do not want to strip the anodizing and I do not want the polished look. I also do not want to send them Reed, Weidman, etc, though I know they would do a nice job.



If I strip the paint off late fuchs what does the anodizing underneath look like? Is it nice enough in appearance that I can mask like the early style and have nice looking wheels?

[Jim Richards]

Tod, I think you'll end up with the bare aluminum. That's my experience from stripping later Fuchs that I'm using as track wheels.

[gr8fl4porsche]

The black paint is very durable. I recently tried various strippers, easy off and every other idea people came up with to remove it. Too much work and very little was happening. If you do manage to get the black paint off the bare aluminum is not very attractive as it will be full of scratches from the removal process. To avoid polishing, some people use the 3M buffing scouring pads to give it the brushed look.

I ended up bead blasting my wheels which also took quite a bit of effort to remove the black. The annodizing came off easily.

[fuelie600]

Tod,

I think you'll find two problems, one the anodized surface is rough or porous. It will want to hold on to the black paint and might look discolored after stripping. Two, the petal surface might have been unpolished before anodizing so it might have a different texture underneath.

I wanted the same style on my wheels, so I bit the bullet and sent them to Al Reed. He stripped and polished my wheels, then anodized them, then painted the backgrounds. He also stripped and cleared my center caps and his wife painted the crests. (He said the centercaps can be anodized because of the mounting plate.)

Here's the finished product:



Not cheap, but worth it...!

[scottb]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
Actually?.....Al Reed is your real friend for these. Okay, I'll shut up.

I agree, but apparently he doesn't want to send them out.

[cbeers]

Todd,
If you want the older look, but with polished "spokes" and painted background, you can do it. If you want anodized spokes, have to send out.


You have OEM black centers and anodized outer lips right? The black is just paint. Strip it away. Get the Aircraft stripper, not the basic stripper from a hardware store. You may want to mask the outer anodizing, but anodizing is VERY tough. That's why it takes heavy sanding or oven cleaner to get it off.

Once the centers are stripped of paint, you can polish the spokes until you are happy with them. Then, mask them off, scuff the remaining background with wet/dry paper, I used 400-600 before paint. Paint the background. Allow to dry at least overnight to get the paint to cure well.


They won't be prefect in the transition from the polished spoke to the painted background (paint layer edge vs. anodized) but they will look good. I did it on mine when I was refinishing my Fuchs last winter, but decided to go with a full black center and polished outer lips since I have a red car. IMHO darker cars look better with the polished spokes and black background.

Hope that helps


-Chris

[quaz]

I would strongly recommend against using any Chemical strippers on Fuchs at home. They are hazardous, messy, and can pit the heck out of the aluminum if you are not carefull. I have done several wheels now and the trick is this:



It will strip the anodyzing like butter and only lightly scuff the aluminum. It is gentle enough that you can just buff from there with a scratch removing polishing compound. If you want a semi gloss look you can probably use 800 or 1000 grit wet sand paper to get a nice finish. I think I stripped an entire wheel in 30 minutes with one of those pads. They are $6 from wall mart and you will probably need 1 per wheel if you are stripping the entire wheel. 1.5 per 2 wheels if you are just stripping the peddals and lip. I can post more pics of the process tonight if anyone is interested.

[jimi_c]

Kevin, I'm about to take that on and would love to see some pics and details.

[jtkkz]

OR you can have them powder coated and then optional to paint the black section yourself like I did or keep it one color

We own a powder coating company www.sycipdesigns.com

I know if you do a search Bob Tilton redid his wheels and used something to take off the polish look of his wheels.

[donstevens]

Originally posted by jimi_c
Kevin, I'm about to take that on and would love to see some pics and details.

Me Too......Do you simply chuck that thing in a basic electric drill?

Don

[quaz]

See this post for details:
Refinishing Fuchs for Dummies

[Todd Simpson]

Cool, thanks for the help, I think people are on to what I want to do. Which is-

Strip the black paint off the center and find perfect anodizing, just like the lips already have.

Mask in the old style and paint satin black. Reinstall.

Wishful thinking, huh? :-)

Evan-Your wheels are the look I'm after, but the cost and logistics of dismounting 6 tires and shipping my rims is not in the budget right now...they're very clean stock wheels so I'm hesitant to mess with them.

If anyone else knows what type of anodizing I will find under stock 930/951 16" fuchs black paint, please post.