Sport Design Wheels need love

[jakeru]

Wow - it's too bad your detailing guy didn't use a safe wheel cleaner. There are paint-safe wheel cleaning options available now (they typically change color to dark red) that are nearly as effective as the acidic type.

That looks like pitted raw aluminum to me, so it will need to have all the oxides removed, primered, and then resprayed to restore. Honestly, there are professional wheel refinishing outfits out there that do this all day. I'd ask them for a quote to do it.

I think the best result would be from disassembling the multi-parts, to clean and restore primered finish in between the crevices, but a reputable professional wheel refinisher would know whether they can get away with somehow skipping that. (My concern if skipping that would be that the corrosion spreads laterally and bubbles or peels away the newly applied finish.)

I also really hope the detailer who applied the acidic wheel cleaner did so with the wheels removed from the car, or else you may find that the the amodized finish on your brake calipers, and zinc finish on your brake rotors and hubs may have also been similarly degraded.

If the detailing guy is still in business, maybe restoring the finish to undo the damage he caused should be his responsibility?

This thread is a useful cautionary tale for the rest of seeking to maintain our Boxsters - so thanks so much for sharing!

[j.fro]

I've got the Sport Designs on my 996 and they were also looking a little tired. They had a lot of curb rash and the centers were kinda nicked up. I also wanted to do a color change. Without dismounting the tires, I separated the centers from the barrels. On the barrels, I was able to use a file & sandpaper to knock down & smooth out some pretty bad curb rash. I used a paint stripper and steel wool to remove all of the painted finish, then I polished to a shine (lots of elbow grease). So far, I've just used polish to keep the rims clean, and it works OK. I've heard of a product called Sharkhide that I'm going to try.
For the centers, I took them to a local powdercoating place. They charged me $320 to strip and coat all four centers, and they turned out beautiful. money well spent. Separating the centers from the barrels was just a matter of getting the correct bit and pulling each bolt. Assembly was just as easy, and I applied a little blue loctite for insurance.

[BYprodriver]

BBS made those wheels, BBS had a program to repair the wheels in Atlanta & supply replacement outer rim trim parts which are Stainless steel.

Shine seal is great for cleaning & sealing bare metal.