PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Squiggle Dog · #4 03-06-2014, 12:47 AM

We were out at the wrecking yard looking for wheels, and all of the ones we could find looked bad or had the wrong offset. Then we saw a W126 that had 16" CLK wheels on it. Jamie got them, and we scrounged up a few wheel bolts as well.

They cleaned up nicely and at least now the car is off of jack stands. The tires are holding air. As I fit the wheels, the center caps popped off of the fronts. The grease caps were sticking out too far. Ugh! Then I realized why the W126 we removed them from was missing the grease caps. The CLK wheels clear everything, but not by much. I believe that spacers are needed.

The original wheels had an offset of 21.5mm, and the CLK wheels have an offset of 37mm. If we use 15mm spacers, this will bring the offset to 22mm, which is almost exactly the original specifications. Then again, those would be pretty thick spacers and we don't want the wheels sticking out too far. 5mm is all we need for the center caps to fit and to give additional clearance, but I wonder if it would be better to try to get as close to the original offset as possible. We could compromise and go with 10mm spacers. I am not sure what to do, and spacers seem expensive.

I've noticed that the light grey color lower plastic body pieces are difficult to find. Jamie wants to find a new front bumper and a jack hole cover. He's on the lookout for a pair of front fenders and a driver side door in the matching color so he won't have to repaint. We'll probably clean up the rust around the rear fender flares and will install chromed fender trim. I found a set of chrome door edge guards at a yard the other day.

Greg had a receiver hitch built for the car a few years ago, and they did a great job at it, as it does not impede the function of the bumper shock absorbers and looks strong.