how to rub her down

JH924S · 12-22-2001, 08:17 PM

hey whenever you guys wax your car does paint come off with it , i know this isnt supposed to happen bu is it saf to keep waxing the car even though there seems to be very little clearcoat left

IceShark · 12-23-2001, 03:12 AM

Many 944s were not clear coated. In any event, waxing is a better protector than nothing, so go ahead.

pete13 · 12-23-2001, 07:43 PM

I was recently washing my car, and cleaned the wheels using a wheel cleaner. It seemed that the paint stripped off the wheels. Has this happened to anyone? It left an almost white color.

Nabeel · 12-23-2001, 08:31 PM

pete13,

It happned to me also. The cleaner seemed to strip the edges of my Fuchs wheels. I quit using wheel cleaner, instead I use plain soap and water.

Rob-O · 12-28-2001, 11:51 AM

Okay, JH. Solid colored 944's weren't clearcoated. At least not until the 968 I believe. So if you have a solid colored car, some color is going to come off when you rub it out. Waxing it shouldn't really take any color off, unless the wax has some cut to it. Unless it's a wax/polish/sealer. Some companies like to throw that in there. It takes off a little paint while also putting down a little wax, usually not doing either (polishing or waxing) well.

Pete and Nabeel...the white is the primer. You have successfully deteriorated the paint from your rims. The good part is that you can pull them off your vehicle, sand them lightly with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper and have them repainted. Wheels shouldn't cost much to have painted.

Make sure the painter uses the factory color on your rims, otherwise your center caps won't match when you get them back. Heck, they might not match anyways...

The silver on the phone dials was crap anyhow, the paint was destined to fall off at some point or other. Another thing that helps speed up the process of stripping the paint from your rims is using the factory brake pads. Lots of brake dust. Brake dust and paint don't go well together. Get different brake pads that don't "dust" as much as the factory one's do. Or wash your car every other day to make sure you get all that brake dust off those recently painted rims...

Nabeel · 12-28-2001, 02:34 PM

The painted portion of my wheels are fine. The area which seemed to be affected is the silver edge of the Fuchs wheels. The cleaner seemed to be a little too abrasive for that portion. I did this the first time I washed the car after I got it. I learned my lesson and have since been using only soap and water to clean them.

pete13 · 12-30-2001, 02:25 PM

If I wanted a different color on my wheels, could I get center caps to match? or could i paint the center caps?

Rob-O · 12-30-2001, 06:16 PM

Well, you'd probably end up having to paint the center cap, with a few exceptions. Not all silver paint on the recent rims (say 1986- today) were the same. Some were a champagne color, other were a yellowish silver, some a bright silver, etc.

So if you were just going back to a silver, but not the one that came originally on your car, you may be able to get the center cap (provided one that fits your rims) in a color to match (supposing you used a color that Porsche used on one of the vehicles during the period above).

If you're going to all white or something, you'll have to paint the caps also. You'll then have to (your call here) re-paint the Porsche crest on the cap. With some colors, you may elect to just leave it the same color as the rest of the rim. An example would be an all black phone dial with an all black center cap. Ditto for white maybe.