Anniversary Wheels

Iv just bought a 40th Anny 996 and am wanting to have the "chrome" wheels refurbed, does anyone know of a company that offer this service??? (Yorkshire area)

Welcome to the forum jed-i. Some one else on here has just bought an Anni as well but his wheels came refurbed with a non-chrome look. Imo, the GT silver paint works well with the chromed alloys. Any pics? ~ Maxie

Hi Jed-i, seems to be a few of us that have just bought an anniversary Mine, like a lot of them, had the chrome wheels replaced for regular alloys of the same style, as there were problems with corrosion as mentioned elsewhere. The last car I had with chrome alloys suffered badly from corrosion too, so i'm quite happy mine were changed.

Were the Anniversary wheels actually chrome? I think they were ball 'polished finish' rather than chrome. Ball polishing gives a high sheen, reflective finish on the bare alu alloy. This is then clear lacquered. The wheels aren't that durable as the lacquer is easily breached and corrosion on the unprotected alloy starts in earnest. As ball polishing is so specialised, most wheel get binned or refurbed in standard silver. You can get special paints that give a mock chrome type finish. My daily drive Audi has wheels from the factory that have this special paint on. Might be an option?

You're probably right Asim. I guess what we are trying to say is that those wheels were chrome effect rather than made of chrome. Btw, where can one get this paint? I'd like to use it on my Golf Anniversary wheels if its a close enough match. ~ Maxie

Is it some arcane Germanian law that all "Anniversary" carriages must bear "chromed" wheels?

I think you are right, the Anniversary wheels are polished. The Millennium wheels were chromed and suffered badly from flaking. I have seen the polished wheels come up occasionaly on Ebay. There are plenty of people who will do a mirror finish on standard wheels to replicate the Anniversary wheels but nobody will take the chromed ones and refurb. Removing the chrome is too difficult and will damage the surface as there are no chemical strippers allowed in europe, it would have to be blasted off.

Maxie, it's a specialised paint - the only point of note I remember is the primer has to be black for it. Try contacting these guys: http://www.paynesbodytechnik.co.uk/Index.html Ask for Tony, tell him I referred you

I was also refering to Maxie's Golf Anni. I think I had two sets of BBS RC 18s during my ownership before the stress and warranty ran out! (then I sold it) The dreaded White Worm (Al oxidation) when water or acids crept under the lacquer due to stone chips etc. Its not cricket to have varicose veins on your bling wheels.

Porsche described the wheels as "shot-blasted, polished 18-inch Carrera wheels" in their original press pack for the 40th Anniversary model. One of the attractions on my car was that it didn't have the polished wheels - makes the car look 'chintsy' in my humble opinion...