Fuchs rejuvenated

I bought a 1988 Carrera, summer yellow Targa, a month ago, 29k miles, very nice car. The tires were completely shot on it, though, so it's at the dealer for a 30k service. I got them to pull the Fuchs Friday night while it was on the lift so I could get new tires put on Monday morning. Saturday morning, I had a local tire shop pull the old tires off, and then I took the rims home.

They had the typical problems; spotted and whitish-stained anodized lips, and centers that were faded to a very flat black, almost grey. My plan was to at least mask off the lips and shoot the centers gloss black again. But it occurred to me that paint is ... well, paint, and the black centers had zero care since new. I first washed the wheels well with P21-S and took some 3M Hand Glaze and a soft towel, and buffed out the spokes. To my surprise, the black gloss came back. I then applied a coat of Blitz wax, and damned if they don't look new again.

On the anodized lips, I tried the Vaseline trick, and it was amazing ... all the water spots and white stains came out. They don't look polished, but they're not supposed to.

Took about 90 minutes to do one rim, but it looks 100 percent better than before. If you can get the rims and tires off the car, it's worth the time. Good thing I'm divorced; the ex would have had a bird if she saw the rim on the kitchen table.

I will have to shoot the hubcaps, they are streaked beyond help. But that will take about 5 minutes.

I'm taking a break before starting rim number two, I may try and get a shot before and after and post if anyone's interested.

Vic
88 Carrera

I'd like a shot if it's not too much trouble.

I'm guessing the same process would work on the cookie cutter wheels...
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

Vic,

Women that don't like auto parts bein' worked on inside the house are best relegated to the 'exes' file! Preferably, you find out that 'bad' side to their personality long before any legal documents get signed! Lots cheaper to keep the lawyers out of the matter!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Painted the wheel lug-nuts on my car with epoxy paint, and used Ms. Z's kitchen oven to bake 'em nice and shiny. No problem.
But then again, when we were first married,
I tried to clean m/c chains in the kitchen sink
So I guess she's used to my "ways" by now.




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Doug
'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
members.home.net/zielke/911SC.htm

Okay, here's an attempt to post before and after photos ...









Vic
88 Carrera

How long did you let the lug nuts bake for? and how many degrees on the oven? I wonder if after i refinish my Phone Dials I can stick them in the Oven heh My mom would beat the hell out of me....(Im 17)

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85.5 Porsche 944

Wow Vic nice job! THey sure do look new again

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85.5 Porsche 944

Thanks for the kind words ...

And, Warren, my ex was very tolerant of my Porsche habit, and she loved the cars. Too much, in fact, to the point where when I had a perfect white 88 Carrera with 23k miles I had a fuel pump cutoff switch put under the seat and would leave it off in the garage. She occasionally mentioned that it wouldn't start when she wanted to take it out for a spin(!), and I would just cluck and say, that damned fuel pump's acting up again ;-)

I think a wheel on the antique kitchen table would've put her over the edge though ... but Jeez, honey, I used newspaper underneath, ferchrissakes ...

Vic
88 Carrera

[This message has been edited by vjd3 (edited 03-17-2001).]

Vic, I guess you sold your turbo. How did that go and did you end up using Ebay?

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8 9 9 1 1, The last of the line.

RaF944,
A little longer than a batch of peanut butter cookies Seriously, about 45 min at 200 degrees. And let them cool down *without* touching or disturbing them, otherwise the finish will be marred. And if your Mom busts your arse for stinking up the kitchen, don't blame me!


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Doug
'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
members.home.net/zielke/911SC.htm

Interesting post.

Very good results with the wheels btw.

On my cookies the centers are totally fine, but the lips have a lot of small scratches, and MANY cracks on the surface. What appears to be clearcoat is badly cracked, and falling off in places, pitted too. But the centers look 100% good, not the smallest imperfection, they're not repainted either.

What gives?
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

[This message has been edited by 1.2gees (edited 03-17-2001).]

Your rims are a different animal than the forged Fuchs rims ... yours are painted silver and clearcoated. You need to have them bead blasted down to the bare aluminum, then shoot a few light coats of Wurth silver wheel paint on them, followed by a couple of light coats of Wurth clear. You can find those paints at http://www.carcareonline.com ... From your description, sounds like your clearcoat is shot anyway. There was a tech article in Panorama several years back describing the process on a set of phone dials off a 928 and the results were excellent.

Vic
88 Carrera

PS -- Yes, I sold my 930, on the Rennlist.

Thanks for the reply, and the link.

I don't think I'm gonna try to make these wheels look better, if I can't do it myself.

Looks aren't something I have too much money to spend on right now either, can't eat into my savings for the next p-car, shortly after I get my license back.

Thanks again.
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

Nice job Vic, Did you treat the center caps with the same process?
Mark

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Mark B. Wilson
mbwilson@home.com
http://www.marksobsessions.20m.com/
'70 911E

Thanks. Center caps were too far gone, I scuffed them a little with some fine sandpaper and did a couple of light coats of satin black paint on them. Good thing they're not the painted crest type. I did not do this in the kitchen, however. ;-)

Vic
88 Carrera