Fuchs wheel care

[Stew F]

Is it OK to use a wheel polish on the outer part of my Fuchs wheels? They are a little discoloured. Probably from brake dust. As well as that, is the black just paint? And from the factory were they glossy or more of a low sheen, to use a house paint term. Thanks.

[Coastr]

Is it OK to use a wheel polish on the outer part of my Fuchs wheels? They are a little discoloured. Probably from brake dust. As well as that, is the black just paint? And from the factory were they glossy or more of a low sheen, to use a house paint term. Thanks.

If you have the original anodised finish on your wheels, the polish may not do much, as it only works when there is bare metal - it is a polish that removes material from the surface.  If they have been polished in the past (to remove the anodising) then wheel polish brings them up a treat (this is what mine are).  However, because it's bare metal you have to keep polishing every 4 or 5 weeks - more if it's raining.  You could try some ordinary paint polish to see if you can brighten up the anodising a bit.  On my other car I have the factory anodised finish and I just clean regularly with soap and water, and then when it is super clean and free of brake dust and tar, put a bit of quick wax down to protect the anodised surface.  But the finish is good to start with, and it's a ton of work to keep it that way.

 

Refinishing the factory anodising is not possible as far as I know, because there's nothing you can do to bring the finish back.  So you either have to get them professionally redone or remove the finish and replace it with something else (like bare polished alloy, or clear coat, or whatever)

 

The centres are a low sheen black paint.  I have read that people rub vasoline on them to get that nice low sheen deep black finish again.  I actually experimented with the non-silicon trim finish I use on the door frames etc for my fuchs and they came out pretty well.

 

Cleaning the wheels is worth the effort because nothing makes an impact bumper pop like bright clean wheels, nicely blacked tyres and crystal clear windows, surrounded by nicely cleaned up black bits, including the rubber strips, sill covers, door surrounds, glass rubbers and fuchs centres. 

[Stew F]

Thanks for all that. I downloaded the care information brochure from Otto Fuchs. They say to use water. I have used white scotchbrite, the non abrasive cleaner one, on them before and that got most of the crap off. Might try some wax on the black bits

[sydr]

my car came from the factory (in 1984) with the wheels colour coded to the car (guards red).  At that time, the colour coding was v unusual.  It has now become more common, - I mention this simply because many people simply paint the wheels the colour of their choice, and you may wish to do the same.  A stripe/logo (ie carrera) along the bodywork, also colour coded, is also increasingly used.

[930]

_{I clean mine using dishwashing detergent then i use Car wax to add shine and protectant}

_{apply the same way as if you were doing your duco, wipe on wipe off wipe on wipe off , Like Karate Kid !}

[Flatout]

My rims had some brake dust staining on them when I bought the car. I had to polish them up 2-3 tims to bring them back again. I used a metal polish on the outer rims with a polishing mop on a drill. For the centres I really just gave them a very good clean. Once all was done I finished off with a couple of coats of wheel wax (I used Poorboys). I actually thought the wax lifted the look of the centres a bit, also help with them staying clean.

 

Only had to regularly clean the rims since, no polish/wax has been required & that was 2 years ago.

 

Cheers.