Chromed fuchs wheels?

I've been told that people often mistake highly polished fuchs rims as being chromed.Mine however, are peeling and the shiny "chromed" area is coming off. The car is a 76 911S. Could a previous owner have had the rims chromed. What am I looking at here? Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks, Chris

Chris,

It is very likely that the rims are chromed. Polished fuchs would never peel. The problem lies in removing the chrome and refinishishing to a polished/painted look.

I recently refurbished a complete set and it was a pain in the a.. . I had the rims bead blasted and spent about $50 on avarious grits of 3M paper and went to town. The result was great but the work was torture. I have photos if you'd like to see the end result.

There may be a chemical solution that will remove the chrome w/out further damage but I couldn't find it. Good luck with it.

Rich

Chris,
I've refurbished about 20 Fuchs rims to original condition, so here it goes:
1- find a sander that knows what he's doing. Ask him to sand the rims with as little pressure as possible, THEN to bead blast them with glass beads or better plastic pellets.
2- Go find a friendly tire shop that will let you use their wheel balancing machine for a long while.You need some rim rotating device. I did that by raising my 944 rear end on jackstands, starting the car and putting it in 4th gear (in an open place...ask why)
3- when the rim rotates, take steel wool and polishing paste, and apply some pressure on the rim, only the part that will not be repainted. Careful to keep the fingers in a trailing position.Then a rag with finer polishing coumpound.
4- when the rim is absolutely shiny, or your fingers worn, go to 5.
5- Find an Anodising company, give them 4 rims (a set) at a time, and tell them to skip the "stripping" step, because by then the rims are clean.Ask transparent anodising for the factory look. Here in Switzerland it cost me around 50$ per rim
6- Go to your favorite paint shop and get the centers painted. The factory had them satin black (the toughest coating I've ever seen). In real world, a 2 composite epoxy paint is tough enough. THe centers being anodized and finely coarse are the perfect support for paint. Tell the body shop NOT to sand anything on the rim, unless you want the bulletproof anodising gone.
There you have Beautiful factory finish that will fool even the experts. I've redone RSR 9X15 rims to an unbelievable beauty.
Of course it would be nice to have the rims checked for cracks and straightened before all this.
Usual disclaimers apply, but it has worked OK for me.
Regards, George

Yep, sounds like chrome -- ick! My 16x6s are chrome too, but not for much longer. If you have the time, patience, and equipment/supplies you can strip and polish them at home.

Otherwise, in So Cal alone there are at least 3 shops who will do them for you at $50-150 per wheel. Tru Wheel in North Hollywood http://www.fixarim.com/ has a good reputation for nice work at reasonable prices.

Good luck,
Chris C.