Picture request - Fuchs without paint, but not polished.
 

IIRC, Fuchs come factory-anodized, and the centers painted. Some folks strip off the paint, then polish. Well, maybe some of you have stripped the paint, and then NOT polished!. That's what I'd love to see pictures of, please.

TIA!

Hi ,

2.4 E / 72' Fuch.

Stripped with Caustic soda. (used for wc)


Not polished , just stripped.

http://i46.servimg.com/u/f46/13/86/10/18/05_09_10.jpg

Sub'd. I'd like to see more examples as well. Especially any later black centered with the black stripped, but the anodizing still intact.

Nice. That wheel looks good.

Is the anodizing still in place under the paint? Mine have all black paint but I'd like to go back to the natural petals if the anodizing is under the paint.

Not all Fuchs have anodizing under the paint. When I stripped the paint on my 16x7, there was no anodizing underneath, just on the lip. The 16x6 on the front had anodizing under the paint, but it didn't look good enough to leave as a finish so I stripped it off and did a semi polish. I don't. Believe my Fuchs are original to my car.

Blast Centers With Polished Lip
 

I media blast my wheels and polished the lips with intent to paint the centers black. I didn't get around to painting due to a hot/humid summer, so I installed them that way. I kind of liked the look and left them that way for about a year before I finally painted the centers black.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1330241159.jpg

Not a bad look.

Wheel Close Up
 

Close up of the wheels post polishing.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1330241663.jpg

Gordo, looks like the older mag wheels

How do you remove the black paint without disturbing the outer anodized rim? When using soda, can you block off the unpainted areas without damage?

The original anodizing on street wheels was a dipping process, so its unlikely that there's 'un anodized' material under the paint.

This is exactly how my cast replica Fuchs look after stripping the center paint.

The texture on the centers is a little less rough, but not by much.

I've heard people say that the later black center wheels did not have nice prep on the petals under the anodizing, and so after stripping the paint (but not the anodizing) the petals don't look as nice as the anodized rim. No one has posted a picture of that yet, which is what I was hoping to see. I guess I'll need to break out the stripper and do one of mine to find out for sure.

Make sure you post a picture of her (the stripper) for us when you do break her out.

Thanks.

That sounds right to me. It is my understanding that the black part of the original anodized finish is actally also anodized, not in clear but in black. The wheel's original black centers are not painted. Anodizing can be done in any color by adding ink to the process. But I don't know how the masking for the Fuchs's is done.

I believe that the lips were actually finished much better prior to anodizing than the centres that were going to get paint. After the anodizing process, which involves dipping the wheel in a (likely acidic) solution, the black portion of the wheel was painted. It was not anodized black. Since the factory was going to paint the wheel centre, having the nice, smooth finish wasn't a priority, thus the rougher look under the paint. It is, however, still anodized. Well, unless it was damaged or removed in the paint stripping process, that is...

Fuchs Surface
 

I didn't think there was any noticeable difference in metal finish after stripping - the petals were the same as the outer ring. This may have been due to the abrasive that I blast them with though.

In progress of polishing:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1330303341.jpg

Gordo

All I can say is when I stripped my 16X7's with AC paint stripper, there was no anodizing under the paint. The anodizing on the rim/lip stayed intact. You could clearly see the difference and I was able to go right to polishing the petals on these. I'm not making this up.

This was not the case with the 16X6. After stripping the paint, which was much, much more difficult, it was anodized underneath. I mechanically removed the anodizing on these to get to the polishable aluminum below.

I believe the 16X7 and the 16X6 on my car are possibly from different years as they are not original to my car.

I'm just guessing, but somewhere in the timeline the anodizing process changed.

Yes, Kevin's answer is spot on. The anodizing is called "clear" and is evident on polished portions of the wheel. It is not evident on the unpolished portions (the centers). The anodizing adds a subtle "grain" to the finish turning a polished surface into a "satin" surface. On a rough surface, the anodizing is not noticeable to the eye.

I stripped the black paint on couple of mine over the past week, and can confirm that the petals did not get much finish prep prior to paint. Fine sanding marks and other finishing remnants were very evident. I didn't bother stripping completely, just wiped with lacquer thinner and a rag until I could see what was underneath. I forgot to take pictures, but take my word for it - if the centers were factory painted, they will require additional finish prep of some sort to be suitable to be unpainted.