My fuchs, finally...

[billybek]

Originally Posted by rfn026

This is impressive. Who's doing this in the states?

Richard

Someone should be!
Very nice!!

[joecrum]

+1 on the jewelry. Put 'em on a chain and wear them around your neck!

It would make my stomach turn to see someone put them on a tire mounting machine...

[RWebb]

very interesting process - what is the surface like if you stop after the bath but before tumble polishing? is it durable?

[JMatta]

Where Are My Sun Glasses!!!!!

[DG624]

Those 16X8 are hard to find...if anyone has them contact me. Clean look but may be hard to keep clean. If anyone is interested BBS is having a sale $400 for 18X8 forged wheels...too big for me but an alternative to Fuchs.

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by joecrum

It would make my stomach turn to see someone put them on a tire mounting machine...

Well, it was a nervous moment, I must admit, but the guy that did it was really gentle... (hmm, did I want to say it like this...)
No, seriously, the shop were I went is used to working with expensive wheels, they knew that I would give them a hurt, real bad... if they screwed up.

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by RWebb

very interesting processs - what is the surface like if you stop after the bath but before tumble polishing? is it durable?

The "polishing" process consists of only the last phase shown in the you tube film, where they put the wheel in the vibrating bath with the small stones.
I believe the wheels are not polished in the bath were they rotate and grind, scour. My German is not perfect but I believe the other scenes were to explain different types of treatment to the hot chick (lol). the "hochglanzverdichtung" is only the last process shown.
It is possible that different sizes of stones are used in different stages, I'm not sure.
I'll try to get some more info about the process and get back to you guys on this.

Price is about 700euros for a set of 4, which is not cheap according to my wallet. (but includes removing of pitting, curbrash)
Refresh treatment , after curbrash or so is only 40euros per wheel, which is cheap I guess.
The backside of the wheels will get dirty ( brakedust...) but should be "easy" to remove. My guess is that that the non visible sides are not going to be cleaned since you need to remove the wheels to do it, and I won't be removing them daily. So i'll let those sides get dirty and get them cleaned whenever I feel the need to get them freshened up.

[stevemfr]

Quick translation:
- the first bath (with the cover) is just paint/clearcoat removal. The wheels are then manually worked over to remove any residual paint, extreme scratches, etc.
- there are 2 processes shown: the first is automatic polishing of the visible parts of the wheel (front). This is done by turning the wheel in several baths with successively finer ceramic beads.
- the second process is the "hochglanzverdichten" which translates literally to "highly polished compression" and is akin to shot peening as the surface is strain-hardened by vibrating the wheels in a bath of stainless-steel pellets. It wasn't quite clear from the film whether you have to do the ceramic bead polishing before the "hochglanzverdichten" or if these are basically 2 separate processes (I've only seen this show like twice - and hated it because they spend so much time trying to be cool, that only half the info come through. Sorry. Quick OT rant.). What the narrator did definitely metion, though is that after the "hochglanzverdichten", you def. need a clearcoat. Geronimo, it seems that either the narrator or you misunderstood something...