When I bought my first P-car, it had Fuchs wheels, which I didn't particularly like. I preferred the "phone dials."  The previous owner  had a set of phone dials and for a few extra bucks, threw them in with the purchase of the car. This was the beginning of my education on Porsche wheels.  I came to realize that my new PD wheels weren't right for my car. There are several versions of this wheel; they vary in diameter, width and offset. If you're considering buying phone dials, learn from my mistake and study this chart to be certain you are buying the wheels that are right for your car.  

924/944/968/928 Wheel and Tire Size and Offset Information

Two of my wheels were 6J x 15 and while these fit the hub, they did not fill up the wheel well correctly and, to me , just didn't look right. Two of my wheels were 7J x 15 and appeared to fit the rear of my car even though the chart above tells me they are the wrong offset. Also, one of them was bent. I learned this after having a tire mounted and balanced -  I encountered a significant vibration at highway speeds.

This led to a little experiment in assessing just how out-of-true these wheels really are. With one of the struts off and mounted in a vise, and a wheel mounted to the hub, I rigged a crude method of checking for true.

By my estimate, this wheel is out of true by about 1/4th inch. A quick look at the cost of wheel straightening ($120) tells me this wheel is worthless.   I suppose I can sell the other 3 wheels, and to be sure that these wheels were straight, I did more testing. Below are some videos of a more accurate assessment of the phone dials:

1. Wheel number 1
2. Wheel number 2
3. Wheel number 3 - Bad
4. Wheel number 4

 On to plan B - explore ways to clean-up  the spokes of the Fuchs.   

The Fuchs (which also came with my car) are straight and I they're beginning to grow on me. I really like the look of them when the spokes are polished. These (above) are a couple of shots of exploring just how difficult it would be to buff-up a Fuchs wheel -it is NOT easy. Polishing this one spoke (above right) is about 30 minutes of work. After a bit more exploratory wheel buffing, I decided that I just don't have the kind of time and patience to rework these wheels. So, on to plan C - Refinishing the Fuchs wheels.

This (above Left), and a little steel wool,  is how I cleaned-up the rims. I know this is a little crude but this is the first time I have tried this particular sanding attachment and that corrosion is some pretty tuff stuff to smooth out. Note about the tool: notice how the curb rash has nearly disappeared in the lower center and lower left part of the wheel. This tool is particularly good for dealing with this sort of problem. And here (above right) is what I came up with for plan C. Overall, a big improvement but still not good enough.

So, On to plan D. This is a 3/4 HP blower motor. With this arrangement, I simply used 240 grit sandpaper  followed by some 600 (wet or dry) sandpaper and then buffed using an auto body buffer and some 3M compound. It took about 20 minutes per wheel. 

And here are some photos for comparison.

Review: 1/2 hour per wheel, $5.00 for the sanding attachment tool and another $4.00 for satin black spray paint.

•         $400.00     Purchase of 4 Phone Dials
•         $(105.00)     Money recovered via sale of 3 Phone Dials 
•         $  4.00        Satin black Spray paint
•         $  5.00        Sanding attachment  tool
•         $  6.50        3M Buffing compound
•         $  4.00        Other miscellaneous supplies
•         $38.00        Manual tire changing machine
•         $  5.00        Spare salvaged lug nuts (5)
• -----------------
•         $358.50     Current total

I intend to go another step. I plan to powder coat the inner portion of the wheel with some chrome paint. Then will try to mask off the spokes and re-spray the black. Maybe that will get me where I want to be.

Update: the corrosion comes back in a matter of months, so my plan for powder coating will have to include a full coat of clear.