wheel suggestions wanted

I finally have a complete car thanks to everyone for the great info on this site it has been a tremendous help. Now we have to get a finish on this car iy has a 10' paint job and red wheels any suggestions from the gallery?
the picture man

Keep the Fuchs. Just get rid of the red. Polish them out and leave 'em or add the make-up. Good both ways.

I seem to recall an article on bead blast and polish is that what you are talking about? It's going to be painted a black pearl with real fine gold flake thought about having them plated gold or painting them to match going to try to have it done by the Dragon run. Have run the Dragon about 2 dozen times but always on a bike this will be our first trip through there in a car of any type.

Richard - Car look great, good job! FWIW, I agree with Terry! Keep the Fuchs but have them polished. I think doing the wheels with gold would look too 'pimp'.

Polished baby.....that's the best!

Anyone know if they can be chemically stripped or do they have to be sanded / bead blasted? I agree plating them gold would be nuts but the right seater thought she liked that idea.

Richard,
I'd do them in the traditional black and silver. All silver will look a little weird with the car all black. And lower that bad boy! Widebodies are way cooler when they're slammed. Good work and congrats on getting your car on the road.

Here's a link to try out different wheels -

http://www.busselecta.com/porsche/index.htm

I like the black/silver idea how low can I go with it, the nerfs are only 5.5" off the ground with no one in it. has gas koni shocks all around. drum brakes std spindles.

I agree with the black and silver idea. Your car will look great if you refinish the wheels to the stock Fuchs look like on Dale Bate's car. http://www.drivewerks.com/tech/fuchs1.htm is a good discussion on refinishing the wheels. And SLAM that wideride!

How about a little change of pace. I think something like gun-metal powder-coat would look boss.

Couple good refinishing articles on Pelican too.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_wheel_refinish/fuchs1.htm

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/concours_corner/concours_corner-4.htm

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_wheel_refinish/fuchs2.htm

Just start with a Scotch pad, tooth brush and gel paint stripper to remove old paint (as long as it is not powder coated). It is a lot of tedious work - great winter by the fire job! I personally like the red - especially if with a red interior.

Today's temp is going to be 78 no fires in south MS. Have a gallon of FAA aircraft stripper for aluminum that should get me a good start. I still wonder about the height thing....I am running 205 55 16 front and 225 50 16 rear 24 3/8" at all 4 wheel wells 5.5" at the nerf bars how much lower can it go without problems? Clearance at the rear wells is very close maybe 3/8" from the inside of the well.
I am going to get with Norbert in Alabama so then we can start a South (Gulf) Coast group.

Richard,
Get rid of the nerf bars if they're a clearance problem. Go without like Scott Sloan's car or stick on a set of bumpers.
Truth is, unless it's an aesthetic thing, the nerfs are only good for pushing.
Here's a pic of Scott's beauty.

Richard - if you get down under the paint and find the black anodization still in place it can prove reluctant to come off even with the aircraft stripper. Nasty aggressive oven cleaner will take off the factory anodization though. Not the nice stuff that smells good, but the really rank stuff that you abandon the whole house after you put it on the oven. THAT stuff...

As far as finishes go... Well I'm a sucker for polished petals and lip with a black background (like Dale's car). But I have also seen some very nice dark grey and hammertone finishes on the background or even the whole wheel that are stunning.

However - never in the history of the known universe should you gold plate these. Not only does will it look atrocious, you will actually de-value the wheels. Plus every Porsche guy who sees you will want to kick your ass. You could only make it worse by putting spinners on it...

angela

Hey Angela.....Spin this.....

Hey Vince - a couple of years ago when I worked for DOT, I was at the main scale station in Ashland (on I-5). A fellow comes thru with a pretty nice Kenworth pulling a dry van. I stopped him on the scale to check-weigh the drive axles (allowed 34,000 lbs). Anyway, when he stopped, the fact that he had SPINNERS on the TRUCK became apparent!

I could not believe someone would make spinners for a commercial truck - let alone spend more than 1,000 on the sent of them...

angela

Richard,
Ride height can be tricky. With limited space in the rear wells if you go too low you may have trouble getting the wheels in and out. You can also grind out some of the inside of the wheel wells. I took out about 1/4" in the rear wells in my car with a grinder and a VERY light hand.
Terry's right. The nerf bars don't really do much. If you MUST have them they make different ones (T bars) that don't loop under the car like the ones you currently have so you could pick up some clearance by eliminating them or going to a different set. You could get it down an inch or so with a lower profile tire being that you have 16" wheels. It's trial and error as far as the ride height goes. You'll need an adjustable front beam (or weld adjusters in the one you have, better to just buy an adjustable one) and you'll have to change the setting on the rear torsion bars / spring plate set up. It's all a pain in the ass (ask how I know) but it's one of those things that "makes" the car. Fat Speedsters don't look right unless they're slammed.

Traditional Fuchs for the wheels and you're set.

Agreed the nerfs can go and I need to get a set of fog lights. Does any one have measurements to top of wells front etc. so I cane ge an idea of how much lower we are talking about? I just got back from one custom painter he wants to paint the wheels gold but he had started drinking about 6AM so what can I say.. the wheels go black with silver petals under a black pearl body. Just need to get a handle on this lowering deal. Not in a hurry so we may wait till I can meet some of you on the Dragon run and see what we are talking about. Would like to make Carlisle but our mill will be in shutdown and no one leaves during shutdown. Unfortunatly work still has to come befor play.
Richard

Was cleeaning the screaming chicken this morning. Speedie was bitching due to lack of attention the hubcaps are the result of less than 5 min with aircraft stripper. Looks like we will have satin black wheels. 72 and raining still no fire but can sit and find something / someone? to strip...

lets see what vince and co have to say about that

I think I posted somewhere on here a few years ago about stripping my Fuchs just as you want to do. I found NO chemical stripper that worked, not even Angela's oven cleaner idea. That anodization is very thick and very strong. I even called someone I know who deals with anodization for electronic components and he told me to mechanically remove it. OK, then:

I ended up getting some small (1-1/2" dia?) 3M fuzzy sanding disks from an auto paint supply store and just started grinding (although I just polished the spoke petals). Went from 100 grit to 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 to 2000 and then polished them out with Metal polishing compound on a small polishing ball or angled polisher (gotten from the same paint store). Some of the tighter spaces I ended up using a Dremel with some of their sanding/polishing wheel thingies.

Estimated time working through the afternoon and into the night is about 3 - 4 DAYS per wheel, just to strip and polish them out. I made up templates so I could paint the spokes with clear coat (Krylon clear) and another hand-held template to paint the backgrounds easily (1 spoke at a time with Krylon Black Semi-Flat) so that took about 5 minutes per wheel with no overspray to clean up. I now have black backgrounds and polished spokes on a Pearl White car. Been toying with the idea of painting the backgrounds to match the white pearl of the car, but it's a big enough PITA that I'm procrastinating (it's a three-part paint and very picky stuff).

Oh, and on the time per wheel.....I'm retired, it was mid-winter and I needed something to do when my wife was watching American Idol or something like that.....It took long enough and was so much work that if you have a decent job I would strongly recommend taking them to a wheel place and let them do it, unless they ask an arm and a leg for it.

Good luck.....

Gordon
The Speedstah Guy from Beaufort.

Gordon your original post about the wheels is what made me decide to attempt this I can't stand the red on my black car. For now we are going to get them back to black and hold till we get a chance to meet some of you in person hopefully the Smokies run. I am not the best mechanic in the world but I learned a long time ago to listen and learn from those with knowledge.
Once again thanks for everyone who has shared their knowledge on this site without them I would have a lot of bits and pieces not my great new toy.

Black with an orange lip?

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dporsche%2Borange%2Bwheels%26fr%3Dyfp-t-102%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=500&h=274&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F3078%2F3099553244_0bb094bfe0.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F32186155%40N08%2F3099553244%2F&size=94.7kB&name=COR+Wheels-Concord+20++on+GT3RS&p=porsche+orange+wheels&type=JPG&oid=8f495c0254644c8e&fusr=COR+WHEELS&tit=COR+Wheels-Concord+20++on+GT3RS&hurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F32186155%40N08%2F&no=16&tt=120&sigr=11la6ha8r&sigi=11gu7v1mj&sigb=13bnmlk2v&sigh=11akg2hgj