polishing fuchs

[sking]

were can i find the topic for polishing and finishing aluminum wheels? is it possible to polish these rims too much? is it possible to polish all small scratches out?
shawn

[AZ914]

Skiing,

I've never actually polished wheels before but there are a couple of good tech articles here at Pelican. This one discusses stripping paint as well as polishing:

www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_wheel_refinish/fuchs1.htm

[dheinz]

Go to the 911 tech BBS and do a search on Fuchs polishing. There is a wealth of info,opinions, and pictures at your disposal.

[mikester]

I polished my Fuchs, they aren't perfect and I think I might have them professionally done eventually. But all in all I really think they came out well.

They started out with pretty bad and old paint.

I used Pelican's article as a guide.

First I used a paint remover for the paint, that was easy.

Then, I actually used some 240 - 600 grit sandpaper to get the surface nice. Then I polished it up with a red polishing compound and a buff.

Get the eastwood package listed in the PP article, it'll be worth it.

Attached are a few pictures, I have to find the good before pics I have though.

[3D914]

Shawn,

If they're Fuchs, then there will probably be anodizing on them - typical with many aluminum wheels. Here are the before and after for my Fuchs.



The first step was to clean off the anodizing. The easiest way to do this is to set themin the sun to warm up, then spray the with Easy-Off oven cleaner. Let stand for ten minutes then rinse off with wet sponge. From there they are much easier to polish. If you plan to do any painting, then don't polish those areas.

Enjoy!

[gint]

It can be done. There's about 30 hours in this wheel. I figured after this experience, that I could do another one in about 15 hours. Then I decided it just wasn't worth it. It's almost as nice as chrome. The sun reflects off of the wheel and onto the ground about a foot away from the wheel.



Actually, this reminded me. Anybody need a polished Fuch for a spare?

[gint]

Here's a larger pic.

[Andyrew]

gawd, thats shiny...

[dsforton]

WOW!!!

[maf 914]

Ginter,

I may not be a fan of polished or chrome wheels, but I will say that is a nice job. Very impressive. Could you describe the process you used? Thanks.

Mike

[unclerichy]

That's the look I want! Excellent job.
But 15 to 30 hours? You're right - it's not worth it.
If I remember right, you can probably get them professionally done for around $100.

[gint]

I spent 30 hours on the first one just figuring out what works and what doesn't. I could do one now in 10-15 hours each. I did that wheel almost two years ago, so I'll see what I can remember.

I read all of the articles about wheel refurbishing. I used the almost the same process. I bead blasted that particular wheel, if I were to do it again, I would use the oven cleaner method to remove the anodizing. I tried the rough grit polishing/grinding compounds, they suck. Especially the greasless ones. I ended up using good old wet hand sanding. 80 grit, 120, 220, 400, 600, 1000, 1500. I have a large buffer. A dremel tool and Dremel sander are also handy for those little corners. I also used a file to do the hole edges (they needed some serious flattening before sanding). This is also the area a professional joint doing the polishing for you might not do. Sand, sand, sand. I also picked up a sanding pad and cut it into various sizes with sand paper wrapped around them to keep my fingers from getting completely beat from sanding. By the time you finish with 1500, you are ready for buffing with compound for aluminum and then I used green rouge. I have a 6" disk/belt sander combo with take off for a flex shaft that I used in addition to the buffer and the dremel with falnnel cones. The end result is as you see it in the pics.

[sammyg2]

I polished a set once, never again. Way too much work, my finners were almost bleeding from all the sanding. next time they go to the polisher guy down the road a few miles.

[azkiwi]

I purchased these from Surfcity914. They looked as though they had been freshly polished. I like the polished look with the White exterior. Mikesters car looked very similar...I think you have black painted bumpers though Mike.


It didn't come with caps so instead of buying the expensive (and what seemed flimsy) ones that we see advertised I went to the local Karls Kustom (stuff for aircooled cars and sand rails) and bought these for less than $70.00 total. They have the Wolfsburg crest (which I thought is still appropriate) and are "thick" aluminium (aluminum) so no chance of denting these puppies. They are locked in place by three little allen key/set screws. I did have to shorten the screws on the front wheels as they would hit the grease cap otherwise. I like the look and I think I saved a few dollars over new original ones...


Are the original center caps pressed steel? From pictures they appear flimsy and prone to denting if you are not careful.

[azkiwi]

Originally posted by ginter
It can be done. There's about 30 hours in this wheel. I figured after this experience, that I could do another one in about 15 hours. Then I decided it just wasn't worth it. It's almost as nice as chrome. The sun reflects off of the wheel and onto the ground about a foot away from the wheel.


Actually, this reminded me. Anybody need a poliched Fuch for a spare?

Hey ginter....
are you selling that spare for $550.00?

$100.00 for the wheel and $450.00 for labor?

[gint]

Hey ginter....
are you selling that spare for $550.00?

$100.00 for the wheel and $450.00 for labor?

Close. That's what came to mind at first...

I figure anything less than $125 and it can just hang on the garage wall as "auto art".