Root helped me treat the magnesium wheels and they came out absolutely gorgous. Thanks Root!!!! The shiny aluminum will look wrong with them. What's a good, durable paint to use on my aluminum five spokes (front) that'll match magnesium (rear)? Is there any other solution other than paint?
Did you use the proper Fancy Chemical ****(tm) for the Magnesium wheels ? Alodine ? Is that the name? It should work on Aluminum too.But you won't get a 100% match cause the base color is different. Test it on something else first,just make sure there is no clear Lacquer on the Aluminum.
Long ago I had bought an amplifier with crud encrusted aluminum knobs. I tossed them in a cup of bleach and it was foaming away. Then it hit me it was eating them! It left them with a nice gray finish, though.
The magnesium wheels were treated with a Dow7 process. I've heard about Alodine but was informed that it wouldn't give me the right color. I'm not going to paint the mags. They look to good now.
You could get a great color match by anodizing the aluminum wheels. Find a good anodizer and he can match virtually any color.
Here's a description of the DOW7 process plagerized straight from Roothawg. "See, Magnesium can't be treated with say alodine. It will turn black. There is a coating I mixed up to put on my wheels. It was a conversion coating...industrial name is dow7 treatment. It's a mixture of Calcium Sulfate and Chromic acid. 1 ounce per gallon of each. Leave it in for the color desired. The longer you leave it the darker it gets. "