2.0 Litre Fuchs cleaning/etc, Ya dig in the garage.... Options

[krk]

Folks,

This last week has been "attack the garage week" -- and I've dug out a set of 2.0L Fuchs. Ok, they've been in my garage almost since I arrived in CA, and I'm pretty sure they were in the PO's garage for 8 or 10 years before that. I've never actually looked at them closely.

Anyhoo, questions, question, questions.

a. How do you get the center caps out of them with out scaping the crap out of 'em? (they went up into the crawl space before I knew what a 2.0 center cap was) The caps have some dents in them - it is worth the bother of trying to un-dent them?
b. There seems to be an anodized clear finish between the padles -- what does one normally do to clean this area?

Pics will be posted once I've cleaned a decade of dust, and brake crap from the last decade, off.

tia.

kim.

[krk]

Serial numbers are identical to Kevins.

kim.

[rhodyguy]

ok. does it have this? those #'s should be raised(cast) too. if they look like they were done with a stamp or a punch they are wrong the extra lip has me stumped. measure the backspacing. from the back mating surface to the back inner lip. are they all the same?

kevin

[krk]

Here's a shot of the back of one of them. I reverified -- all have the same numbers/etc.

kim.

[rhodyguy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[krk]

Kevin,

I think I have a clue -- if you look at the picture with the wheel weight print on it, you can see the profile of the wheel behind it. I think they are the same as yours. There's an optical illusion on the front picture because the annodizing/clearcoat area ends just before the curve. Am I close?

kim.

[JeffBowlsby]

a greyish-silver paint between the paddles

Nope, there is no applied coating, just anodizing. All of the Fuchs shown so far are OEM factory. The repros have openings that are different than the OEM wheels. You can tell right away if they are fakes, if youn know what the real one look like, but its hard to describe. Where is that wheel page when you need it?

I have studied my real Fuchs carefully and as near as I can tell they bead blasted the low spots covers casting marks easier in these hard to reach areas) and then polished the perimeter rim and high spots (paddles). Then everything was clear anodized. The clear anodizing cut down the brightness of the polished areas. The coarser low areas appear darker becasue their texture is different and light reflects off it differently.

I did the same prcedure to refinish my Fuchs a couple years ago and beadblasted the low spots, polished the lips and paddles for a very similar effect. I deceided not to clear anodize them becasue I was told by the anodizers that the rather harsh chemicals used as cleaners actually degrade and spot the anodizing after a few years. So my lips and paddles are raw aluminum, and I simply polish them up 1 or 2 times a year for a bright shine. The finish is really durable even if left absolutely raw, very low maintenance.

The Riv and repro Fuchs polish up even brighter becasue they are CAST aluminum where the OEM Fuchs are FORGED...a different grain structure. Cast aluminum shines more.

[krk]

Jeff,

Ok. I've looked at them under magnification. The texture is certainly different, and there are certainly no paint lines at the edges. I would not have guessed that!

I agree on the finishing front -- I have another set of fuchs where something has dulled or spotted the anodization -- I'd rather have something that I can manually polish up when needed. When the covering gets hosed, you have to resort to messier things.

I'll admit to being quite curious on the originality of the spare tire. The tire itself is not a safe tire to be using. Inspection reveals cracks/etc. The back side is very very clean. It may have been installed a couple of times, but that's about it. Maybe I should take some air out of it and send it to Andy -- he may be able to tell me if it's german air or not (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Anyone know anything about official tires from that era?

Anyhoo, this has been more interesting than expected.

kim.

[JeffBowlsby]

Kim I also still have a virgin spare Fuchs...unrefiunished in very good condition...we could compare them sometime if you like. Its in my white car.

[Brad Roberts]

Rob,

I have a set you can use for "extra's".. but honestly, you need to start selling some of your sets and looking for 15x6 Panosports.


B