Refinishing Mahle Alloys on LE, Is the silver painted or just bare metal? Options

[jagalyn]

I am refinishing the Mahle alloy wheels on a 74 LE. The current finish of the silver area looks like it is bare metal with the center painted yellow (in my case black). I thought the Mahles were painted silver while the Fuch alloys were bare metal.

What is the original finish of the 4 spoke Mahle alloy for the Bumblebee Limited Edition?

Yellow = Sunflower Yellow (L13K)
Silver = ?????????

Thanks,
j.

[Eric_Shea]

Painted? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

That doesn't sound right. They're not "bright" either (referring to bright dip anodizing). If they're Fuchs they should be a standard anodization for a factory effect (on the rim that is).

To acheive this you need to first, have the wheels de-anodized. If you have picked a local anodizer for the job they will usually do this for free or very little money based upon the fact that you will use them to anodize the wheels. Next you need to have them polished to a high gloss or mirror shine. They cannot be polished until they are deanodized. Once they are polished to a mirror shine they can be reanodized to the factory finish. Standard anodizing will dull the finish slightly and that's the look of a fresh Fuchs.

Now... all that being said, I could be way off base but, I don't think the rim was "painted" on. I think the wheels were anodized with the centers painted to match the cars' offset colors.