Scotch-Brite Fuchs...IOW It's all Bob's Fault

[BlueSideUp]

After Bob Tilton posted photos of his Scotch-Brite'd wheels I had to try it. The results are awesome but it is a lot of work when combined with repainting the wheels.

I was just going to do as Bob did and scotch-brite the petals and lips, unfortunately the closer I looked the more I realized my wheels were in need of a refinish. The PO had repainted them with quite a bit of gloss black and didn't do the best job of masking. Even the lug seats had been painted which is a big no no.

I ended up completely stripping the wheels and doing the entire job. The scotch-brite part of the job wasn't difficult at all but the masking for paint took a long time.

Here is one of the 7s almost completely stripped.



And here is the same wheel finished with the center cap installed. This photo was right after I pulled the masking tape so you can see a little fuzziness on one line that will be easy to fix.





Once I get the rest of the wheels refinished I'll post pics on the car. Oh and here's another car (with a real anodized finish) that inspired this work, not sure who owns it.



I know this finish will be more maintenance than an anodized finish but I really like the look and don't see a little maintenance being a problem.

[Eric-325I]

Awesome! Thinking about doing the same...

Eric

[arbita1]

Any chance you can elaborate on the scotch brite portion of the job?

[450knotOffice]

They look great. You've got more patience than me. I just had Al Reed do the work for me.

[bob tilton]

Well that came out nice! I got the scotch brite idea from cneilson. He utilizes a more random pattern. I just wanted a more uniformed look. I started off with a set of refinished polished wheels so it only took me about .5 hr per wheel. So I know you worked hard to achieve the excellent final results.
Harvey and I actually talked about the scoth brite finish then anodizing the wheel. I know that he really digs this look.

[BlueSideUp]

Thanks for the compliments guys....

Here is a link to Bob's original post.

Scotch Brite on polished fuchs results...

He details the process there but basically you take your scotch-brite pads and start with the most coarse working down to the fine pads. As Bob said you can make a uniform finish or a random finish. My work follows Bob's and uses a uniform finish. For a uniform finish it is very important to keep your scotch brite action going one direction.

Starting as Bob did with a set of nicely finished wheels would really help time wise. My wheels needed a complete refinish and repaint which took a lot of time. All the masking is what really took a long time. I think the second 7 will go much easier since I know where the lines are supposed to go. The first 8 will probably be a little slow until I get the lines figured out.

Scott-

Believe me numerous times throughout this job I was thinking how much Al and Harvey deserve the money they get paid. My wheels won't be comparable to their work but I think they turned out decent.

[SweetE]

Craig,

Your wheels look great - how do you like the "G Force Sports" ?

[Zeke]

Very nice wheels. More pics of the interior!!

[JMatta]

Very nice wheels...I was all excited to work this finish on my Fuchs until I completed reading the prior post link. Unfortunately, my wheels are anodized. How bad would I screw them up if I just brushed the outer rim? I wish to keep the centers black (my caps are already scuffed silver with steel wool).

Great work!

[BlueSideUp]

JMatta- You just have to decide if you want to deal with more maintenance of non-anodized wheels. I have read a few refinishing threads where people used oven cleaner to remove the anodizing, I don't have any experience with it so try searching for "refinishing fuchs oven cleaner". I think the anodizing is pretty tough so just rubbing with Scotch-Brite might take a while.

Sweet-e - I actually haven't driven on the tires yet. Unfortunately I'm doing things backwards and just had the tires mounted. I didn't realize at the time that the wheels really needed to be refinished. The previous tires were Dunlop SP8000s which are a great tire. This car had been sitting in a garage for at least a year before I bought it, the tires were all out of round and weather checked. I'm hoping to have the wheels refinished early next week so I'll let you know!

milt- I'll get some pics together next week. The interior is pretty stock except for a Nardi Personal wheel and new carpet. I'm probably going to install a Recaro SRD I have sitting in the garage because the original driver's seat needs a rebuild. Somehow the seats have made it through 37 years and are in great condition, just the springs are worn out on the driver's seat. Eventually I'm going to replace the seats with a set of these...



They are made in Redondo Beach by Scat and seem to be a decent price. The photo is Larry Ratcliff's car, he had them recovered in a matching material rather than the black vynil they normally use.

[SweetE]

I think you will like the tires, as I have a set and have used them on my previouslly owned 71E and my 76 912E, both for daily driving. I also did a track scession with them on my 67S and they were OK, however there are better track tires.

[BlueSideUp]

Oh yeah, if I go on a track day I'll probably try to find a set of separate wheels and tires. I'm pretty excited to try them out, the old tires were really bad!

[Dutchie]

Great job Graig ! looks awesome.

wow at first i thought it was BB2 but it,s a 73rs model i think with the same r gruppe decal very very nice car

[JMatta]

Hi BlueSide...

Thanks for the comments. Maintenance does not bother me. My car is driven about 1200 miles a year; mostly track miles. My Fuchs (7&9s) are in very nice shape. I would not want to damage the black centers, as they do not need refinishing. My goal was just to get more of the RSR look to the outer rims. My friend had a set refinished by Al or Harvey (not sure which) and they look spectacular with the frost finish.

I'll definately search for the other thread. The car's sitting in winter storage up by Road America for the winter, so nothing will happen for a while.

Jerry

[BlueSideUp]

I finally got around to finishing at least one of the 8s. I've learned a few lessons in this process that might be helpful to others. With the first wheel I stripped it first and then masked for the black webs.

Unfortunately I've never painted a fuchs wheel before so I had no idea where the lines should be. Because of this fault it made masking much more difficult. By the third wheel I knew where the lines needed to be on the wheels. On the second and third wheel I thought I would strip the old paint off and use the faint original paint lines to guide my masking. After painting I would go back and scotch-brite the finish. This was a lot more difficult than just scotch-briting first then painting because I had to go back a touch up the paint.

On the last 8 I decided to strip, scotch-brite, then paint.

First of all it helps to have an assistant....His name is Bentley



This is how the wheel started after stripping off the paint with a chemical stripper....



The scotch-brite purchase begins with the sides of the petals as described in Bob Tilton's post. Use the red pad and make sure to be consistent. Once the sides of the pedals are done with the red pad go ahead and do the centers of the petals. Don't worry too much about little marks, you'll be rubbing on the wheel quite a bit by the time it's all over.



The barrel is next and follows the same process. I found it helps to hold the wheel with your chest against the tread to keep the lines consistent.



Have your assistant check the work for any spots you missed or blemishes....



On to the masking. A lot of people like the electrical tape for lines on the petals. I found it does work great for that purpose but there's no difference for the barrels. The important thing is to be consistent with your lines. It's easy to check at this point by checking consistency at the outer portion of the masking tape, it can be difficult to tell behind the petals.



The rest of the barrel is pretty easy to mask. This is obviously just the start of the masking and I'll get to doing the petals later this week.



Hopefully some pics of the finished wheels mounted up soon!

[porsche911girl]

Originally posted by Dutchie
Great job Graig ! looks awesome.

wow at first i thought it was BB2 but it,s a 73rs model i think with the same r gruppe decal very very nice car

Yeah I thought it was BB2 until I looked at the rear lenses...nice car tho!

[911Urge]

Two comments

1. Great job on the rims. Your car is a beauty.
2. That photo is worthy to be hung on a wall & is calendar material.

I think I know exactly where that shot was done. I may need to make a trip to that location for some photo ops.

[W Scott Shores]

Originally posted by BlueSideUp
not sure who owns it.

This is Ray Crawford's car. A real beauty.

[BlueSideUp]

Tell Ray his car is definately admired around here, I saw some of the pictures when he bought it and the car has made very nice improvements. It'll take some time but I hope to have my car there some day.

Thanks for the compliments on the wheels, it's been a lot of work (just ask my wife).

[jk911]

Hi Jess,

I am thinking about giving my fuchs the same brushed look as opposed to the current polished look. However I am concerned about future upkeep.

Have you clearcoated yours ? If so whith what.
If not, how do they look after a few weeks/months without further attention?

Any updated photo's ?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Cheers
John