Julian Thompson

My 964RS (Euro) has the mag wheels and I had them refurbished a few weeks ago by a UK specialist.

They look lovely but as you can see on this picture below some of the paint is coming off already!

They have been powdercoated etc... to apparantly give proper adhesion but this is worrying!

The specialist has been fine on the phone and has promised to repair the problem no worries but since they will just be localising the area will this give a proper repair?

John Boggiano

Whilst I've never really got to the bottom of whether my wheels (17" x 8" & 9.5" Cup 1s from a Carrera Cup car) are to be referred to as 'magnesium' or not, in the belief that they were, I had them refurbished via PWS some time back.

It was a superb job - no paint problems since it was done (July 2002). The drawback was that they had to go to Germany (fortunately that's no big deal for PWS - they just stuck them on their van which constantly goes back and forth). I understand they need to be done with a cyanide-based primer, which makes the job somewhat of a very specialist nature.

Julian Thompson

I used a pretty renowned local company who seem to know what they are doing sp hopefully this is just a "one off" localised problem but it does look odd doesn't it?

Your wheels should say "magnesium" and "made by SM" on them if they are mags, John.

GeorgeK

The 8" and 9.5" rims are not MG if they are a set off a Cup car. The RSs (and again not all) had 7.5 and 9" in Mg.

John Boggiano

Thanks, George. Are they just aluminium alloy, then?

Cuppie

Julian -did they strip the tyres off to do the work?

Mel

Julian Thompson

Hi Mel!

Yep the wheels were blasted back to bare metal, powdercoated and then painted.

I am a touch naffed off about this to be fair. I might get it fixed and buy some new 18" "speedline for porsche" ones that look better anyway and just stash the originals in the garage.

tonytaylor

18in wheels on 964

Julian Thompson

Not a good idea Tony?

tonytaylor

Apparently Porsche don't support the use of 18inch whels on the standard 964. Adrian Streather has the full explanation which I'm sure is in the archives. I must admit I can't fully understand why a, say, 7.5kg 18ins wheel should put more strain on the car than a 10kg 17ins wheel.

Both Techart and Cargraphic ( and I believe RUF) offer 18ins wheels for the 964, TUV approved and I presume they are happy with their use.

Cupcar

All the 17" wheels in the style of the '91 Turbo, RS America, early Carrera Cup etc. are made in Italy by Speedline of aluminum whether in 7, 7.5, 8, 9 or 9.5 inch width. These say made in Italy on the back of them.

Wheels 7.5" and 9" wide, identical in style to the above supplied on the European RS are made in Germany by SM of magnesium. These say "SM" and "Magnesium" between the spokes.

ian c - u.k

i think its more to do with 18's not being a factory option

i wont be doing any trackwork , and will hardly be hammering the car , so i dont see a problem !!

they designed my car to do 170mph on its factory 17's , i dont see what harm i will do doing 100 max on 18's

ian c - u.k

"powder coating" rung a bell in my head ..........

but i cant remember if they should be or not

tonytaylor

I believe there are issues with ride quality and tramlining with 18ins wheels.

ian c - u.k

i heard someone say about changing the front hubs to rs or turbo spec .
dats what i was going on about !!!

problems like ride quality are gonna suffer whenever you upsize , due to lower sidewall height meaning less "give" .

i dont think it is anything to be unduly worried about