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Thread: Making Maxilites look like 67S Wheels

  1. #1
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    Making Maxilites look like 67S Wheels

    I recently purchased a sand beige 67 912 and the original chrome wheels were a little tired.
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    My first Porsche was a RHD sunroof 67S purchased in 1983 while living in the UK. I liked the look of the 4.5x15” Fuchs. I wanted to replicate that wheel for the 912, but without spending $10K plus.
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    Josh Sadler at Autofarm taught me how to refinish a 67S wheel. Which I recently confirmed with Eric Linden. It involved removing the anodizing, bead blasting the front face of the wheel, repolishing the lip and petals, anodizing, masking and painting the 67S paint pattern.

    I thought I could do this with a set of the Maxilite 4.5x15 Fuchs replica wheels so found a source for $195/wheel plus $20/wheel shipping. I purchased the polished wheels which come un anodized.
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    Next step was to construct a stand on which the wheel could be spun in my blast cabinet. $45 on Amazon brought a 5 bolt trailer stub axel and hub. The bolt pattern was not exactly the same, but close enough to get some 1/4” bolts thru to secure the wheel. I then used some scrap steel to weld up a stand.
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    To save some polishing time I used an old 1/4” rubber gym mat to make masking for the polished parts. The masking was secured with a combination of safety wire and black clips. The masked wheel was then put in the blast cabinet and spun by hand while blasting. The blasting pattern needs to be even or the after anodizing you will see a mottled pattern.
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    After bead blasting I used Griots paint correction polish and a machine polisher to touch up the polished areas and blur the sharp line between polished and bead blasted. I started with the most aggressive polish and worked my way to the least aggressive.
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    I had previously contacted Ed at Fuchs Restoration and they were willing to do the anodizing and paint, so off they went. The turn around time was very good - 4 weeks from when I sent them to when they arrived back. And the result was great.
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    Total cost was about $2,700 for 5 wheels which includes purchase of the wheels and the work by Fuchs Restoration.

    Bill Sargent
    67 912
    64 C cab
    59 A Carrera cab
    1/2 of a 904
    Last edited by Bill Sargent; 07-12-2020 at 11:08 AM. Reason: Add signature

  2. #2
    Oil Cooled Heart Bullethead's Avatar
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    Impressive!
    Russ

    ESR # 1537

    '62 356S Notchback Hotrod
    '67 S Das Geburtstagsgeschenk
    '68 T Targa Sportomatic
    '68 L SW Targa Sportomatic
    '70 914/6 GT

  3. #3
    Moderator Chuck Miller's Avatar
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    Very impressive Bill !!!!!
    Chuck Miller
    Creative Advisor/Message Board Moderator - Early 911S Registry #109
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    ’98 Chevy S-10 – Utility
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  4. #4
    That's awesome.
    Last edited by Chuck Miller; 07-12-2020 at 02:27 PM.

  5. #5
    Thank you for the tutorial on this.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    Excellent, good job!
    S Registry#2021

  7. #7
    Senior Member
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    Cool ! 4 1/2 Fuchs for maybe 1/4 the cost .

  8. #8
    Senior Member
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    Very cool, Bravo to your ingenuity.

  9. #9
    Beautiful. I see restored 67S Fuchs without the rough areas and just wonder why?

  10. #10
    Thanks for posting this - I'm about to set off on precisely the same path for my 1965 912. Lightness (okay, and looks) are the goal. Did you happen to weigh one of Maxilites 15 x 4.5 replicas?

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