Fuchs DIY Re-finishing

[fitchesbass]

Hey All -

Happy holidays! I'm just wrapping up my Fuchs wheel re-finish project. I currently have 993 cup wheels on the car with summer tires; but given I'm now driving this car as my daily driver (including cold temps and some light snow), at a minimum, some proper all-seasons were due.

I got some old Fuchs that were in rough shape (to say the least!). I'm pretty sure some of them are not OEM (i.e. at least two I'm sure are replicas). Nevertheless, I set out for my first wheel refinish project. My original plan was to replicate the RSR style of finish with the black background... but that proved to have numerous issues in my DIY approach. The result is I went with a silver inside with a matte clearcoat and a polished outer rim/lip.

Disclaimer - I'm just a noobie that learned as I went along. I was hell bent on doing the end to end process myself. In hindsight, I would highly recommend sending the wheels out to get cleaned up / stripped, as it would make your DIY part of the process a helluva lot easier! Also, if you are a diehard perfectionist just send them out to a pro IMO.

Here are some pictures from beginning to end over two weeks I spent working on these.


Upfront before and after:




Starting out








After lots of sanding/cleaning etc. Used orbital with metal polish for final lip polishing after my hand sanding.






Masking (2nd worst part aside from sanding)






Primed and inside drying in the warmth



My simple painting setup

[fitchesbass]

Silver final coat vs. primer



Holding breath as removing masking from polished lip. This shot is as the final matte clearcoat is drying








Finished product






Tires arrived

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by fitchesbass

My original plan was to replicate the RSR style of finish with the black background... but that proved to have numerous issues in my DIY approach.

What problems did you encounter on the black background? When I re-painted mine I didn't find that to be terribly difficult.

[RSBob]

Magnifico! Very nicely done.

[Elombard]

What paint did you use? Look good to me!

[fitchesbass]

Arne - How did you mask off for the RSR finish? Looks like you went the polished route (i.e. the spokes of your set is polish vs. painted). I had issues with the silver metallic paint not liking my masking - perhaps I didn't let it cure enough before starting to mask over the silver paint, but the first wheel I did ended in tears, as the blue painters tape pulled up the silver metallic. In the end, I think I almost prefer this different look for now. thanks

RSBob - Thanks!

Elom - I used all duplicolor products. After (what felt like) years of sanding and then polishing the outer lip, I used a base primer and a filler primer when needed - sanding in between primer coats. Then I used the silver metallic from duplicolor (2 light coats, follow by one medium coat). At first I was not sure the silver metallic was the right finish for me (a lot of pop and metallic fleck). Then I did 3 light coats of the duplicolor matte clearcoat and it just make the wheel exactly how I wanted them. It's hard to tell the difference in pictures but the matte clearcoat is a must to get that really flat finish inside the spokes. A lot of this I learned and made mistakes as I went, which wasted a lot of time.. but so it goes with trying a new project for yourself.

[88911coupe]

I did this project a couple of years ago but it did not turn out this nice, it wasn't bad but did not look this good. I'm inspired to give it another go using this as my reference. Thanks for the info.

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by fitchesbass

Arne - How did you mask off for the RSR finish? Looks like you went the polished route (i.e. the spokes of your set is polish vs. painted). I had issues with the silver metallic paint not liking my masking - perhaps I didn't let it cure enough before starting to mask over the silver paint, but the first wheel I did ended in tears, as the blue painters tape pulled up the silver metallic. In the end, I think I almost prefer this different look for now. thanks

No, my spokes are painted, but I left the lips and barrels natural anodized. I stripped all the black paint, sanded and primed, applied Rustoleum silver followed by Rustoleum gloss clear. (I was going for the clear anodized look, rather than RSR frosted.) Masked the spokes and applied Rustoleum satin black.

I will agree that the cure time on the silver and clear is critical. I had to do a couple of them twice due to paint lifting with the masking tape. The results I got were not perfect, but still look really good until you get right up close and personal.

This was a good interim step for me, but I do plan to have mine re-anodized at some point soon.

[Flojo]

Hi guys!
Just a quick question... I have acquired a set of 16s in bad condition... they have lost all of the black paint and most of the eloxy is gon due to corrosion. they must have sat outside exposed to many years of bad wheather.



So I took them for blasting this morning, to get a most possible even surface, but will have to filler them to even out the really bad spots.

Now I understand, that powdercoat does not hold fix on a non bare metal surface, so I will have to paint them.

I have regular "rim silver" for quick DIY resprays, but I think this will spoil them.
The genuine eloxy is much "clearer/lighter" than rim silver.
Can anybody tell me what paint code (RAL) comes near to the genuine eloxy color?

Thanks!

[Flojo]

no answers?
well, I can do with that. I'll manage somehow.

But what about that?
Isn't this method loosing/spoiling way much paint?
Is there an other method for "flooding" AND saving paint?
What paint to use for theis method? DIY-2K-mixture?
What about the air valve socket (retreiving it someday/tirechange might cause paint cracking?)

Originally Posted by Charles Freeborn

Mask from the back - flood from the front, then puncture masking and drain into a bucket.

[Arne2]

I was not able to find an off-the-shelf silver paint that I felt was a match to the original anodized finish. The Rustoleum paint I noted above is close, but not quite the correct tone, and the metallic grain is too coarse.

Best match I've seen is the very bright silver used by Toyota on the wheels of some of their high-end cars. The metallic grain is so fine as to be almost undetectable. I was not able to find anyone who could match that paint, however.

My results as shown above were pretty good, but I ended up sending them off to be stripped, polished and re-anodized instead. Shipped them off on 17 Feb, they should be back next week some time.

The "flood" method of accent paint only works on 15" Fuchs, the 16" have a different cut line.

[Flojo]

ok, so lets get started...

this is what I came up with:




one try to bead blast them didnt turn aut well, too rough.
guess its because they were paint stripped already and the bare alloy didnt like it.
il have to come back to it later...


smoothen the pitting with some acrylic...


some alloy coating one one of the 7x16




more in the days to come...

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by Flojo

ok, so lets get started...

this is what I came up with:

Wow. Yours were much worse than mine. Here's a couple of shots of mine part way through the refinishing process.

After paint and anodizing removed:



Pre-anodize polishing completed:

[Flojo]

what I do is a DIY low budget aproach to "save" these near lost fuchs.
at least: the turn nicely and the horns are 99% nice and straight.

so finished wetsanding, prepping, base coating...


my template for painting...

[Festive_Zombie]

Smart! I like that template you made Flojo, I will borrow that idea

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by Flojo

what I do is a DIY low budget aproach to "save" these near lost fuchs.

I like what you are doing to these. As you said, unless you were willing to do something like this, that set of wheels was lost. Good job!

I did the same type of thing years ago on an abused set of AC Schnitzer wheels. They turned out great and I drove on them for years. I suspect your Fuchs will be similar.

[rothaus]

I restored a set of 16 inchers for my SC.

First I used a paint stripper to remove 2 layers of paint. Then oven cleaner easy off, to get the anodizing off. I'm not sure if this stuff is available in Germany.



Next polishing the lips, and tape them.



I painted them with rustolium satin black 7777.



Painted the center caps



Here is the finished wheel.



Don't forget to take the dremmel tool with a little soft wire brush to remove the paint in the lug nut holes.

Cheers
Engelbert

[beren]

like those caps.

[SilberUrS6]

Originally Posted by rothaus

Those look great. Did you also spray the barrels and back side?

[Flojo]

btw. here is my way better set of 7x/8x16 restored 2012 for my current ride.
just to let you know, that I do know what a good fuchs should look like ;-)

7x16








8x16








done, with Pirelli P7