Jeremy B

Wow look at what I have started I didn't know that the can of worms that I would open up would be so large. You know about he anadized versus painted and polished thing , we must remember that these are porsches you could order your porsche with practically anything you wanted, as you still can. If you wanted your wheels polished from the factory I be the dealer could get them as wheel as anadized or painted. I had a previous 928 that was a champagne 84 S same as the one I have now but it had gold anadized (yes anadized wheels. The way that I knew this is that I put an extremely strong(takes of human skin) pain remover on them first. Nothing cam off. I them used a wire brush bit on my power drill and in a couply of hours have scraped all the anadizing off. but them decided to pain them silver. Big Dave your wheels sound exactly like the ones on my current 928 when I bought it. I think they are polished cause mine also have black in the edges adn in the holes for the lug nuts and all they took was a couple of hours to get like a mirror. ( sorry I havn't posted any picts.)

Jeremy <img src="graemlins/xyxwave.gif" border="0" alt="[bigbye]" />

John Struthers

Ed, not to fight...
but, the Weissach window stickers I have seen.
All three of them, state; "anodized finish" on the wheels.
And 928 International list's a 'RE-ANODIZE' Service for $595.00.
Further clarification needed, ANYONE?
John S.

BillHapke

Sorry Ron! My code on the sheet under the rear pad is code 347 and I have silver (which is the color of Platnimum) or chrome wheels. If you have gold colorer wheels look to BBS. They made a gold colored wheel.

Bill

dr bob

Ed wrote to the board:

[quote] Just a point of clarification, but all Porsche OEM 928 wheels were painted, and none came from the factory "Polished". YMMV. <hr></blockquote>

The OEM wheels on my S4 are anodized aluminum disks. Not painted, definitely not polished though. I've seen several cars which had an owner-applied black paint in the slots and on the interior, perhaps to help mask the dark brake dust. Or maybe they wanted to highlight the mini-slots. No paint on my origial wheels, though.


The new wheels I have on the car now, takeoffs from a late 996 C4, are definitely painted.


As far as care of the anodized wheels, I can only warn you to use extreme caution when using any abrasives on the anodized finish. Anodizing is a process similar to electroplating, except that the donor metal is darn close to the original metal. The donated metal is very thin, and if buffed with anything seriously abrasive will be removed, exposing the original aluminum. My car was thoughtfuly detailed at the seller's dealer before I took delivery several years ago. They used a common spray-on foamy wheel cleaner to get the brake dust off the wheels, and managed to etch the anodizing slightly in the process. Little runs and what look like water spots on the faces.


My cure was a hand treatment with a little common polishing compound, the stuff you use to detail out scratches in the paint on the pickup truck. Followed that with finer liquid polishes, including a pass with Mother's white mag wheel cleaner as the last step. Then, the wheels were waxed for protection and went back on the car.

After that one-time "treatment", they get the same cleaner/glaze/wax steps that the black paint gets, at the same time that the rest of the car gets cleaned and detailed. In between, it's important to keep the wheels clean and free of brake dust. I found a brush that makes this a simple task, reaching through the spokes to clean the inner surfaces that gather all that dust. Having the insides waxed helps a lot with cleanup.


Some common tire dressings contain ammonia. Don't get that stuff on the aluminum wheels! I still use a spray product for convenience, but only spray the outer edge of the sidewall, then use a dedicated sponge to finish the application.

V-Fib

Very interesting post's. When I bought the "79" the PO told me it was all original. The wheels are 16 in. Design 90 type wheels. I know that the 79 could be ordered with 16 in. wheels, but the 15 in. Phone dials were the standard rims at the time. (Option code sticker missing) I'm beginning to think these rims are off a later car. They are in great shape, although I have been thinking about polishing them. They are not painted.

Anthony Tate
79/928 Metallic Silver