Removing paint from Fuchs?
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Shipping from Sweden to the states might turn out to be really expensive. I asked the company Wheel enhancement on two 9*16 and they told me "Plan on spending about $200.00 to ship the two wheels to Sweden". There is good companies that will perform this kind of polish and painting as well.
BTW nice wheels Jeremy!
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BTW nice wheels Jeremy!
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I too have an old set of Fuchs that need to be refurbished ... the previous owner didn't take great care of them. The painting part seems relatively straight forward, but does anyone have tips on polishing the aluminum?
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but does anyone have tips on polishing the aluminum?
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The problem is that these wheels are anodized from the factory. This is NOT paint. It is an electrochemical process that roughens the surface significantly on the microscopic scale. Then there is dye brought in to dye it black. (We all know of other colors of anodized aluminum, it can even be just matte Al color).
Anyway, what I am getting to is that you may not be able to remove the last layer of 'paint', because it ain't paint.
To do a proper restoration, you have to have the wheels re-anodized. No clue who does that in Europe.
The cheap thing to do may be to media blast them carefully, polish them where you want them polished and paint the rest flat black.
HTH, George
Anyway, what I am getting to is that you may not be able to remove the last layer of 'paint', because it ain't paint.
To do a proper restoration, you have to have the wheels re-anodized. No clue who does that in Europe.
The cheap thing to do may be to media blast them carefully, polish them where you want them polished and paint the rest flat black.
HTH, George
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Dear George,
That is not all together right in the case with Fuchs. The anodizing method used on Fuchs is something that is called "clear anodizing" and it's surface something that almost look like platinum, in fact I think it contains platinum. This layer is then polished to get the surface that you can see on the "lip" The black area is painted on top of the unpolished anodized surface wit´h paint. You can rip the paint off, very difficult though, and look at the anodized surface. There is a process where you can "dye" the anod but not in this case though. To get rid of the anodized surface, that is less than 0.50 mm thin, you can either use some kind of lye or simply polish it away. Either way it will take some skills, hard work and bloody knuckles and you probably will be better off sending them away.
Best regards
Anders
That is not all together right in the case with Fuchs. The anodizing method used on Fuchs is something that is called "clear anodizing" and it's surface something that almost look like platinum, in fact I think it contains platinum. This layer is then polished to get the surface that you can see on the "lip" The black area is painted on top of the unpolished anodized surface wit´h paint. You can rip the paint off, very difficult though, and look at the anodized surface. There is a process where you can "dye" the anod but not in this case though. To get rid of the anodized surface, that is less than 0.50 mm thin, you can either use some kind of lye or simply polish it away. Either way it will take some skills, hard work and bloody knuckles and you probably will be better off sending them away.
Best regards
Anders
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One more comment. Anodizing the done with dye can be performed in most town but companies who performs clear anodizing is more difficult to find. There is one company in Germany though that specializes in clear anodizing on Fuchs http://www.felgen-service.de/
Best regards
Anders
Best regards
Anders
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Look on here and Pelican parts site - many tech articles and resources for the do it yourselfer.I saw a thread a few weeks ago about someone who sent them off for media blast - then did a polish and clear coat on their own.
One reason the easy off oven cleaner works - is the lye in it.
One reason the easy off oven cleaner works - is the lye in it.