Mercedes 500 SEC König conversion

Starting point

A customer from Luxembourg brought us the anodised deep-dish wheels of his Mercedes 500 SEC with König conversion. The brief was clear: the wheels were to be returned to their original condition. Restoring originally anodised wheels, however, is difficult. Hardly any business still masters it, and those who can usually restore only their own makes. The original wheel manufacturer no longer existed. Anodising companies do exist, but none of them wanted to take the multi-piece wheels apart and then reassemble and seal them cleanly.

Work

Many weeks passed in the search for a solution. The last resort would have been polishing to a high gloss without a clear coat finish, because polishing anodising down is anything but easy. A clear coat on highly polished wheels was out of the question: the bolts would have bored into the clear coat when tightened, water could have crept underneath, and aluminium corrosion would have formed under the lacquer. New bolts were only available in chrome, which does not suit an anodised wheel. So we completely reworked all the bolts as well. The wheel well was also fully refurbished from the back.

Result

The wheels are completely refurbished, with reworked bolts instead of chrome replacements and a cleanly restored wheel well. The customer from Luxembourg was delighted. For the care of anodised wheels we recommend a wheel cleaner suitable for anodised surfaces.

Workshop archive, original report. Product details reflect the state at the time.