kevincnc

Looking for options, I called the place in town that a Porsche dealership recommended for wheel repair and told the guy one the phone that I wanted to get my clubsports re-finished, and possibly polished. He assured me that they could do that and powder coat them clear, "just like new." I ignored that and asked if they could fix the chunk missing out of the rim on one of them. "Sure, we can usually fix them if they're not too bad" he said. Then I asked, "So you weld them in and then turn the weld down on a lathe or what?" He replied, "Yeah, why don't you just bring it down and we'll have a look." Then I said "I like the polished look, but I think I want them to look like original, can you anodize them?" He then said, "Well, some shops do that but we weld them."

I tried to expalin that anodizing was the surface finish, not the way to fill in the chunk, but then he started talking about plating and I realized that I might as well be banging my head against a wall. So the real question is, why do so many people pretend to know what they're talking about instead of just saying "I don't know" or "I've never heard of that?"

Now I'm afraid to bring my wheels there, in fact I'm afraid to bring them anywhere.

alex

I learned to qualify my statements with "i think" or "if I remember" a LONG time ago, unless I am fairly (<- see) sure I know what I'm talking about.

StoogeMoe

Well, when I had my Fuchs refinished at Weidman's Wheels, he asked me if they had deep gouges in them. The way I remember him explaining it was, it there was too much material missing, they would have to weld in the missing material. And then my only option was to have them polished. He couldn't anodize them if they needed welding. You might want to give him a call to explain your situation. He is a well known Porsche wheel restorer.

Van

I don't see why anodizing WOULDN'T be possible after welding... but, certainly, anodizing will NOT fill in any scrapes, or gouges. Anodizing is a chemical treatment that oxidizes the surface of the aluminum which hardens and protects the surface.

kevincnc

Interesting, I'll give him a call. I have never heard that welds can't be anodized and can't imagine why not. Maybe the outline would show up. I got the impression that the guy I talked to didn't even know what anodizing was though. I guess it's possible that he meant they couldn't do it if it was welded.

StoogeMoe

Yeah. I think you've got it. He does show car quality restorations, so maybe the outline of the weld shows up after anodizing, and therefore is not acceptable.

KuHL 951

The anodizing would react differently with the welded repair and probably show as a discolored line or texture. You would be better off with weld repair (no anodizing), polishing, and then hope the polished area has enough anchor profile for the clearcoat to bond to. Usually sprayed clearcoats have a tendency to disbond quickly from polished surfaces though unless it's a clear powdercoat process.

KLR

I've screwed around with having local and chain places in NY and Chicago refinish wheels and come to the conclusion (the hard way) that it's a bad idea. I've now used Al Reed Polishing (3010 East Coronado Street Suite A, Anaheim, CA 92806, (714) 632-3907) twice with really good results. Do a search on the pelican 911 forum and you'll find more threads about the guy than you can believe. He really does excellent work and is shockingly reasonable. As an example, I just had him refinish four 16 x 8 phone dials for me. They came out in basically concours condition for $55 per wheel. Even including the cost of roundtrip shipping from Chicago, that is far cheaper than any local place. The result is so much better than what I got from Wheels America in NY (for twice the price) that it's laughable.

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

kevincnc

Okay it's sounding like polishing and powder coating clear might be best.

KLR- I'll give Al Reed a call. Did they do the wheels in your avatar?

TRWright

Kevin, do you have a pic of the chunk taken out of your wheel? I am in a similar situation with one of my clubsports and want to see if yours is worse than mine. .

thanks

KLR

Kevin,

Al actually did not do the wheels in my avatar -- they came to me polished already when I bought them.

I did, though, have Al polish the original center caps from my car. They came back looking like jewelery, with the crests painted black, and clear coated. I've used those center caps with my phone dial wheels for a couple of years now (perhaps 5k miles) and they still look like the day they I got them. No polishing required. I think that he charged me $15 per center cap for this.

kevincnc

Okay, I'll see what he says about the caps too.

Ted, I'll try to get a picture next week.

StoogeMoe

Here's what my Fuchs looked like after coming back from Weidman's. I think Harvey's prices are quite reasonable too. He's in Oroville CA, which is also in your vicinity.

Funn944

Talk to Wheels America. They have offices in Pennsylvania, and Dallas, TX. I think they have a couple others as well. They can do damn near any kind of wheel repair and refinish. I just had a really bad edge damage repaired (weld) and repaint. Looked really good, $149.00 a wheel.

UncleMaz

I will post pics later, but I just refinished mine with a can of Duplicolor bumper spray, a piece of cardboard (sprayed them while on the car) and some light sanding/cleaning/polishing on outer the rims (rubbing compound mostly).

That groove between the centers and the rims is a perfect place for a bent license plate or piece of cardboard to mask the overspray. What little overspray on the rims I got, was taken care of with the outer rim cleaning.

If the indent isn't too bad and is in the center, just use a little body filler and have the wheel re-balanced (if even necessary).