Colour Changing Magnesium Wheels
Discussion
In the day 964RS wheels were refurbished multiple times.
David Barnes proposed the solution which I believe involved a Chromate primer ... I had the emails somewhere if you are interested and can get somebody to do it.
Ian Jemmison near York repairs and refurbishes the old Minilite Mags ...
Hello Chris
I hope you are well?
With regards to magnesium wheel refurbishment the best process is....
1.Chemically strip and blast with non abrasive medium
2.Crack test (X-RAY)
3.Chemical di-chromate to seal
4. Oven bake
5.Key etch with the finest of powder coat layers possible (to preserve to wheel markings such as "made by SM")
6.mask the mounting faces - you don't want paint on these (or you can emery cloth them after painting but don't break the di-chromate seal)
7. Paint in correct shade of Silver - there are many opinions on the right shade, personally I think BMW Titanium 354 silver is spot on
8. Lacquer - if you want to be anal about getting them back to factory finish, you need gloss lacquer on the outer faces and satin/matt on the inside rims
I don't know of anyone who will do all 8 stages properly, so I think it's case of using at least 2 suppliers
My recommendation would be
stages 1 -5 inclusive : Reality motorworks in Bristol - they specialise in Magnesium, albeit Mag motorcycle wheels, the owner is a guy called Griff , very knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic. He will powder coat instead of stages 7 and 8 if you wish, but I think the powder will be a bit "thick" and you will loose the imporatnt rim markings eg. made by SM, additionally the colour may questionable. I think Griff will charge about £70/ wheel to do this,then you've got carriage.
www.realitymotorworks.com/
Once you've had this done, you could simply put the wheels away and leave them lilke this and not paint them until you decide to put them on the car or sell it - the wheels will not deteriorate once they've had this process done. Mine were done three years ago and they were absolutely terrible before Griff restored them. They are still perfect.
Stages 6-8 - in theory this is the easy bit, any GOOD bodyshop can paint wheels using a spray gun in a booth. One word of caution you must insist they DO NOT try and sand the imperfections which are visible in the powder coat primer. This is actually imperfection in the original casting and if they sand too much in order to get a glass finish,they will remove the di-chromate and you have to start again, because the paint WILL react with the magnesium (i've been there). Some bodyshops will be reluctant to use different lacquers on the faces and inner rims simply because it's a pain - my advice would be to take your business elsewehere, if they are not prepared to get the detail right, the quality of their work is likely to be questionable too.
You should leave the wheels for many weeks in a warm envirnoment before fitting tyres because it takes time for the paint to harden. Actually tyre choice is important too, some tyres like Bridgestones have hard walls, which are a b*tch to fiit without removing a tiny bit of paint from the outer rim. Michelin PS2s and Pzeros are easier to fit.
Now you know as much as me!
Thank-you David !!
Chris
David Barnes proposed the solution which I believe involved a Chromate primer ... I had the emails somewhere if you are interested and can get somebody to do it.
Ian Jemmison near York repairs and refurbishes the old Minilite Mags ...
Hello Chris
I hope you are well?
With regards to magnesium wheel refurbishment the best process is....
1.Chemically strip and blast with non abrasive medium
2.Crack test (X-RAY)
3.Chemical di-chromate to seal
4. Oven bake
5.Key etch with the finest of powder coat layers possible (to preserve to wheel markings such as "made by SM")
6.mask the mounting faces - you don't want paint on these (or you can emery cloth them after painting but don't break the di-chromate seal)
7. Paint in correct shade of Silver - there are many opinions on the right shade, personally I think BMW Titanium 354 silver is spot on
8. Lacquer - if you want to be anal about getting them back to factory finish, you need gloss lacquer on the outer faces and satin/matt on the inside rims
I don't know of anyone who will do all 8 stages properly, so I think it's case of using at least 2 suppliers
My recommendation would be
stages 1 -5 inclusive : Reality motorworks in Bristol - they specialise in Magnesium, albeit Mag motorcycle wheels, the owner is a guy called Griff , very knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic. He will powder coat instead of stages 7 and 8 if you wish, but I think the powder will be a bit "thick" and you will loose the imporatnt rim markings eg. made by SM, additionally the colour may questionable. I think Griff will charge about £70/ wheel to do this,then you've got carriage.
www.realitymotorworks.com/
Once you've had this done, you could simply put the wheels away and leave them lilke this and not paint them until you decide to put them on the car or sell it - the wheels will not deteriorate once they've had this process done. Mine were done three years ago and they were absolutely terrible before Griff restored them. They are still perfect.
Stages 6-8 - in theory this is the easy bit, any GOOD bodyshop can paint wheels using a spray gun in a booth. One word of caution you must insist they DO NOT try and sand the imperfections which are visible in the powder coat primer. This is actually imperfection in the original casting and if they sand too much in order to get a glass finish,they will remove the di-chromate and you have to start again, because the paint WILL react with the magnesium (i've been there). Some bodyshops will be reluctant to use different lacquers on the faces and inner rims simply because it's a pain - my advice would be to take your business elsewehere, if they are not prepared to get the detail right, the quality of their work is likely to be questionable too.
You should leave the wheels for many weeks in a warm envirnoment before fitting tyres because it takes time for the paint to harden. Actually tyre choice is important too, some tyres like Bridgestones have hard walls, which are a b*tch to fiit without removing a tiny bit of paint from the outer rim. Michelin PS2s and Pzeros are easier to fit.
Now you know as much as me!
Thank-you David !!
Chris
Edited by ChrisW. on Friday 30th August 13:27
BrntRubber said:
Hi All,
Does anyone know of a UK company that can correctly colour change magnesium wheels?
At the moment it seems the wheels need to go back to BBS which takes 10 weeks and will be costly with shipping etc.
Thanks
Personally, I wouldn’t mess with them, or trust a paint company who says they will. We used to have OZ Magnesium wheels on a World rally car, and they were really difficult and expensive to get refurbed correctly. There are all sorts of issues with removing and keying the original paint finish (Mg is extremely sensitive to chemical paint strippers and mechanical abrasives).Does anyone know of a UK company that can correctly colour change magnesium wheels?
At the moment it seems the wheels need to go back to BBS which takes 10 weeks and will be costly with shipping etc.
Thanks
On a GT3RS, there’ll be all sorts of potential warranty issues with getting them painted by anyone other than the manufacturer. Put another way, would you buy a GT3RS with magnesium wheels, which has had the wheels painted a different colour, with no warranty on the paint finish...? I wouldn’t....
Edited by IREvans on Tuesday 27th August 22:44
BrntRubber said:
Hi All,
Does anyone know of a UK company that can correctly colour change magnesium wheels?
At the moment it seems the wheels need to go back to BBS which takes 10 weeks and will be costly with shipping etc.
Thanks
I really wouldn't bother till they need a refurb. Then do it at first service in a few years via OPC. The car looks amazing as is Does anyone know of a UK company that can correctly colour change magnesium wheels?
At the moment it seems the wheels need to go back to BBS which takes 10 weeks and will be costly with shipping etc.
Thanks
Well I wouldn’t have them painted by any of the wheel refurb companies or “middle men/agents” recommended so far ...
Far better to speak to someone like Mototechnique who will take such a job on and will have the necessary contacts and/or facilities to do the job properly.
As an aside, “old” magnesium wheels such as those fitted to the 964 RS were produced using different casting methods (and are this far more akin to Swiss cheese) than the modern equivalents produced by the likes of OZ, Speedline etc, which are pressure die cast.
Far better to speak to someone like Mototechnique who will take such a job on and will have the necessary contacts and/or facilities to do the job properly.
As an aside, “old” magnesium wheels such as those fitted to the 964 RS were produced using different casting methods (and are this far more akin to Swiss cheese) than the modern equivalents produced by the likes of OZ, Speedline etc, which are pressure die cast.
Slippydiff said:
As an aside, “old” magnesium wheels such as those fitted to the 964 RS were produced using different casting methods (and are this far more akin to Swiss cheese) than the modern equivalents produced by the likes of OZ, Speedline etc, which are pressure die cast.
Aren't the 'modern' mag wheels as per BBS forged rather cast like before on the 964rs?Porsche911R said:
Juno said:
I don’t think I would want anyone Fecking around with them at 10k a piece 
they are a £8.5k option and £20k for a full set to buy from BBS.Hence specking them is a no brainer for £8.5k and makes the WP the real deal.
Porsche911R said:
IMI A said:
They need someone to get the wheels off. They do not have the tool 
the tools in the front trunk :-)IMI A said:
Have you been there and met them? From the horses mouth they refuse to take those wheels off not only because of tool and I'm amazed that massive lever in frunk but also they are worried about damaging ceramics
taking them off is the easy bit, a breaker bar and one nut to undo ;-) it's seconds and quicker than doing 5 bolts !putting them back on is the harder part as you need the grease and a torque wrench.
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