Clean/Refinish Fuchs Wheels

[Ron Meier]

I was asked how to clean & refinish the FUCHS 2L wheels. I have searched the site and don't seem to be able to find the answer. I do not personally know what the finish is/was.

Anybody willing to throw a few ideas out or supply a link?

Reply here or send an email to:

mikemail356@juno.com

He will appreciate the information ( he has a beautiful '73 2L).

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Check in the "Tech Articles" section of this site, and you'll find:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_wheel_refinish/fuchs2.htm
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_wheel_refinish/fuchs1.htm

The finish was a bare-metal look (not polished, I don't think) on the raised parts of the Fuchs, and a sort of milky-white anodizing on the recessed parts.

[edit--]A number of the four-bolt wheels wound up with black-painted recessed areas. But those seem to have been done by the dealer, the importer, or one of the car's owners. John Larson has mentioned that was one of the jobs that the "lot boy" at the dealership he worked for did in 73+.[--edit]

...Unless you're talking about five-bolt ones, in which case there were a bunch of different finishes.

--DD

[Ron Meier]

Thanks Dave, I had hoped you would come through.

I will forward the link to Mike.

[Speedo959]

Dave,
I just bought a 73 with fuchs and was wondering if it is just better to clean them up and leave the recessed part origianal? I would hate to take my wheels to the antique road show and have the guy tell me in front of millions of viewers I made a mistake in painting them and now they are worth only 4 bucks.

[Ron Meier]

If the "fine wine and bad cheese" crowd thinks they're only worth $4.00 each, I'll pay $8.00 each and I have the lug bolts

[Speedo959]

Add two zeros and you have a deal.

[3D914]

Ron Meier,

If you use the tech article supplied by Dave, I have one suggestion; instead of wasting hours sanding the wheels to remove the anodizing, set the wheels in the sun for 30 minutes and spray on some Easy-Off overn cleaner. Let it sit for 10 minutes and wipe off the anodizing. Cover any portion of the wheel you don't want affected with tape.

Good luck,

[sammyg2]

Actually, it is a little known fact that all the 4 spoke 2.0 Fuch wheels came from the factory looking like this: http://home.earthlink.net/~sammyg2/_uimages/yellowfuch.jpg

Unfortunately the factory discovered that the yellow made the cars way too fast to be safe, so they had the dealers strip off the paint, or replace it with black :-)

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The only 914s to come that way from the factory were the ultra-secret carb'ed turbo versions. Then Porsche heard how everyone was saying that you couldn't actually turbocharge a 914, let alone put carbs on it--so they destroyed all the turbocharging parts, burned the plans, and painted the wheels black.



--DD

[Ron Meier]

Hmmmmmmm! Obviously a "Project Blue Book" / X-Files scenerio.

Wonder if Fox Mulder & Dana Sculley would want to investigate?

Were all the wheels stung by the bees?

exit - stage left - fade "erie" music - go to black.