Painting cast aluminum wheels

There seems to be so much discussion on various Ferrari related forums about the proper finish for Ferrari cast aluminum wheels. I am definitely not the authority but I have some observations worthy of mention.

From the early 60’s to present, Ferrari delivered there cars with cast aluminum/magnesium alloy wheels. My understanding is that the dealer offered wire wheels to customers for short money so the majority of 275, 330, 365’s had the cast wheels removed and Borrani wheels installed. These early wheels were a very porous casting and are prone to cracking at the hub area and without the correct prep work will not hold paint.

Later cars from the 365 GTB/4, C/4 and later had a much higher quality cast wheel that poses similar problems for making the paint adhere but less likely for structural failure.

The 308 QV that we just purchased had one wheel that had a scuff mark in the paint so I experimented with re-finishing that one wheel to match the very flat and poor finish of the 3 other original wheels. I did not have any luck, the original wheels are so grainy and flat that I would have had to use a spray can to make it look somewhat similar so I had to break down all four wheels to make them match.

In the photo are images of an original 1986 Ferrari 412 wheel with only 10,000 miles and a 512BB wheel that we just refinished. You can see a huge difference in depth and luster, is this considered over-restoration? I will touch on the over-restoration issue in a future post