What's the factory finish on 914 fuches?

clear anodized finish

914 Fuchs finish:
The paddles have a light polish with the back ground a light "bead blasted finish".
Clear finish over that.

'Texture' on the background and polish on the 'spokes'.

Any pictures?

So if i'm trying to restore my wheels to sell them, should i blast them and then clear coat the results, or prime and paint them silver with clear? Which is more desirable is what i'm after?

asdf

Also check out the 'Wheels' section of the originality forum.

Are they already painted? If so are they Fuchs or American Racing?

My recommendation is not to paint them. I would pay more for a poor factory finish than a painted "restored" fuch. Restoring fuchs is not really a DIY project.

Polished Fuchs are popular. I believe it is time consuming to polish them but if they need to be refinished that would be my choice. There is a tutorial on doing this if you are interested.

The factory finish is tough. It will take serious sanding or chemical etching to remove the annodization. This toughness of the factory finish makes painting to restore very undesirable IMHO.

To actually answer your question: I would not blast them. If you really have to, I'd at most lightly polish the paddles and rim and paint the back ground with silver. Oh it hurt to type that.

You know what, i'm an idiot. I just did some searching after thinking that those wheels above don't look mine. They are pedrinis not fuches. So same question but now regarding pedrini wheels. Also anyone know what they are worth?

So, no one seems to have answered the question.
Are the mat finished areas between the paddles just sandblasted or painted?

I will add that to take off the existing anodized finish just use yellow easy off with lye...a few coats finishes off the anodized layer, then you must use borax straight to get rid of any discoloration.

Rich

Pedrinis have always seemed to be the least popular of the OEM alloy wheels, I suppose because they were found on the less-desirable '70-'72 cars. I'm not sure you'll get enough for them to make it worth your effort.

I thought I answered the question but...

The 914 fuchs were NOT painted from the factory. The paddles were lightly polished almost a brushed finish. The "background" (area between the paddles) was left rough, maybe sandblasted (IDK) and the whole thing annodized. So the paddles and rim and the background are all annodized. IMHO You can not replicate the finish satifactorly by sandblasting the background.

Annodized aluminum is tough. I consider chemical etiching to get it off pretty agressive. You can remove it by agressively sanding and blasting too. But why? I don't understand why you would want to to try and remove the annodized finish and make the wheel look stock. Once you remove it your maintenance on the wheel goes up. If you must paint I would suggest painting over the annodization which too will increase maintence to keep it looking good.

The only reason I would recommend removing the annodization is if you want to polish the wheels. The tutorial I mentioned uses EZ-Off (lye) to remove the annodized surface. Polished wheels have a bit more maintence, but if you keep that high luster they are not bad. There are alot of products on the market to keep them looking shiney too.

I've glass beaded a Fuch and I think it would be about as close as you could get to the rough finish from the factory. It would not be an exact match by any stretch, but it would be close. If you were to glass bead the wheel and polish the paddles and lips and then have the wheel anodized I bet you'd be very close in appearance to the factory finish.

My humble $.02...

I hope it's OK to resurface a month old thread. Comparing 4-lug fuchs to 5-lug. Is the anodized finish on the spoke different between the 4-lug and the 5-lug? My 5-lug deep sizes have more of a silvery anodized finish, when compared to my 4-lug fuchs. Or is it just because they need reanodizing?