Wheels

Cleaning and Sanding

Just got done refinshing my flat style 928 wheels on my 89' 5-speed and it turned out nice. The
PO had evedently never properly cleaned the wheel in the 9 years prior my ownership and the
brake dust had gotten so baked on that I was ready to have them sent off for proffesional
stripping and refinishing. I got a lot of helpful hints from alot of list members and I appriciated
all the info but all the cleaners, polishies, and putting creams in the world did no good. The
black dust on the inside of the wheel openings was so hard and baked on that I almost gave up,
it was like baked enamel on a ceramic drinking cup.

As a last ditch effort to avoid having to send the wheels off for a $120+/wheel pro job, I bought
some good autobody finishing wet sandpaper. I used a wet 240 and 600 grit sandpaper for the
most difficult wheel openings and visible inside lip and a super fine 1200 wet sandpaper for the
main outside surface. I spent about 2 hours+ on each wheel with paper towels and a hose. I
then followed up with some Mothers mag wheel cleaner cream. The cleaner really did a great
job of pulling up all of the remaining dark smears left from the sanding.

The wheels look a nice bright silver again and look better than most other 928 flat wheel I have
yet seen on the street. Even the better looking wheels I've seen, which don't have the baked on
dust, seem to always have an ugly bronze/brown haze on them. I know that a lot people will
condem me for using sandpaper but it was a last resort that really paid off. I just recomend that
use good clean even sanding stroked when working and take your time. Also take care not to
sand down to bare metal. The job is back breaking but the job has given my Shark a much more
youthfull clean appearance.

Good luck to all of you suffering form the PO wheel neglect blues.
*Joe