Question about...Hubcaps
 

I have decided that I like the clean look of the hubcaps, with the color matching centers, instead of the brake-dust encrusted "Bundt Cake" wheels, so I went to the local Euro Car boneyard & picked up 4 rims & hubcaps, got the color match paint from MBz (why so expensive the paint, Mercedes?) and painted the hubcap centers.

Everything turned out nice, and when I went to put the hubcaps onto the old 123, I found out what I had stupidly failed to observe - one of the 4 hubcaps that I had spent such care on to paint perfectly was missing the little "tangs" around the inside that clasp into the inside of the rim to hold the hubcap on.
Damn!
What are those things called, anyway? Can they be purchased and somehow attached to the hubcap? Or do I have to go back to the wrecker for another hubcap, and redo it all over again?
Double Damn! I am out of that expensive MBz paint, too.

Arrgh!

I can't answer your question, but I do agree with you on the look of the hubcaps.

I think you can use clips from other hubcaps. For cheap paint in the right Mercedes colors go to PaintScratch. I had some good experience with them.

just go to your local junkyard and take away from the other hubcaps...they can be replaced.

I just did the swap ro hubcaps on my 240, wow it looks real nostalgic now..

...Or get new ones from the dealer or phil. The are replaceable

I like the hubcap look myself. I have a set of cream colored ones on my winter wheels, they sort of match my champagne gold paint. And yes, the clips can be pulled from another cap and installed. Just need a good set of channel lock pliers.

Can you guys tell us how to do it right; how did you mask it? Tried it ones with blue tape, took me hours to mask it "right" and still the results where unsatisfying.

There are dust covers to put inside the Bundts to keep the dust off of them.

I like the hubcaps too. I grabbed a set for next to nothing but have no plans to use them.

tell us how to do it right; how did you mask it?
 

I like the covers too, on an original car to keep it looking that way (I confess, I am using a set of 15 in. flat face wheels off a 420SEL on my '79 300TD for the better handling they provide!)

The best solution to masking the wheel covers would be to find (beg, borrow or steal!) the OE paint jigs that are made of metal for this purpose. They are placed over the wheel covers carefully, fitted over the star and held down by gravity, then you shoot the cover with spray paint. Works very well and no tape required!
I spoke with someone in Phoenix that would rent me a set (along with a large deposit, in case I forgot to return them) but alas I do not have their contact info any longer.
I saw one set (new!) on eBay about 8 years ago. I bid it way up but someone else wanted them more then I did. Probably a body shop that specializes in MB's.

If anyone finds a shop or someone that has this setup please let me know! I was considering having a set of wheel covers painted when I (someday?) paint my 220. Ibought a set of new covers about 10 years ago
The autobody shops I know and use said they would have to mask wheel covers using tape. My what a job it would be, labor costing what it does bothers me but the fact is I believe that the Mercedes masking devices would allow a better end result, I just can't see taping being even close to perfect unless the person doing the job is really experienced and has lots of time on his hands!

Ducati

How did you do yours? I did a set of blue ones a couple of years ago and it took hours using tape and a razor knife and the results were "marginal" to say the most. (actually they dont look bad from 20 feet away). Someone told me what they paid "extra" in a body shop, cant remember the exact figure but I remember being "shocked :eek: Someone should make and sell those "jigs", might make some $ :)

There are two different part numbers, depending on what kind of wheels you have. (Hmmm, maybe this explains why mine fall off so easily after moving them from aluminum wheels to steel. :P )

123 401 01 28 for steel wheels
123 400 00 27 for aluminum wheels

Dealer list price in 2002 was $1.40 each.

There was a set offered up on ebay here recently (October/November?), and I think someone (a forum member) has one sitting in his garage as a "collectors item"...
Wonder if they would load it out...would make very decent bank on the deal

Hmm...

Brandon314159, you say that a member here has a set of the painting jigs ???
Yippee :) we might all make him more wealthy now, who is it? Come forth ye that owneth the MB wheel cover paint thing!

Look through the Vintage section for info on the painting jig. It was discussed there, and the person who owned one said it never worked well.

Key Phrase: "A member here somewhere..." :D

Not sure what it would take to dig them out of the woodwork...time to commence the search!

Regarding the painting jig, the thread I was thinking of is here.

There's another thread with some good information here.

Just a thought.....
I remember years ago my dad had a flat tire out of town on his w109 300sel 3.5. It had the bundt alloys fitted to it. When he fit the spare alloy rim we had had bought used to have as a spare(car had hubcaps from factory) the lugbolts were just a hair and I mean a hair too long. The flat was on the rear and the too long lug bolts fouled up in the emergency brake and the wheel locked up. Thinking the worst he had it towed over 150 miles home to find out that the spare bundt(aftermarket copy, but we couldn't tell) was a little thinner allowing bolts to go in too far. We felt pretty dumb. lol
So..., I also think alloy and steel rims used different lug bolts.

Definitely...the alloy wheel lugs have a solid center and the lugs for steel wheels are hollow.

OK OK Come to think of it, I have seen wheel covers painted where the edges looked sort of fuzzy, I think maybe the jig doesn't seal very well around the perimeter, duh!
Therefore I have taken a new heading on my compass, I no longer seek the painting jig that I thought was so hot, thanks to yeldogt's input on the other thread (and thanks to Rick Miley for the link!)
I am now looking for a place or individual that has done a super job of painting by masking, forget the painting jig idea :rolleyes: pay someone I suppose better if they turn out nicer.
DDH

Looks great.

I too have the painted-to-match OEM hubcaps on my 240D. I really like the look.

And when it comes time to replace the tires, I'm going with whitewalls too!:sun_smile

- Patrick

I had to paint a hubcap after my wife lost one and "did not have time" to stop and retrieve it. I got pretty good results by masking the entire hub cap then cutting out the appropriate areas with an Exacto knife. The result was not quite as good as original, but from six feet away no one would notice the difference.

for my wagon, they definitely do. I have a set of Benz 1 mags on with a steel spare.. the steel spare uses a shorter set of lug nuts that the one i use for my Benz1.

Even on my "then" sedan..where i had Benz 3 mags on it.. the lugnuts were definitely longer than the ones i used for my steel spare.

Be sure to check them out.. as this could cause the problem you encountered. If you do not have the shorter lugnut, and if you have to use your spare.. use it in front.. swap the good mag wheel at the back and use the steel in front.. there is no emergency brake lines you can ruin in front with a longer lug nut.

Stevo;
I bought the pen style laqueur stick and did around the edges, the outside & inside & around the star, very carefully, by hand. I let that dry for a few days, than masked off the parts that I did not want sprayed (I used electrical tape as I did not have blue tape, and brown wrapping paper) I sprayed with the factory spray can (which cost 3 1/2 times what I pay for touch up paint for my girlfriends' Accord), and waited a few days. Then unwrapped it all - Beautiful! Except for the horrible discovery that one of the hubcaps was missing those whatchamacallits that grasp the wheel rim...
Damn - but now one side of my car looks nice and nostalgic.

Oh yeah, the lugnuts...
I did have to buy shorter ones for the stock steel rims.

One day I will media blast the Bundts, and powder coat them. Brake dust cleans off powder coat a lot easier. Meanwhile I am enjoying having made my 123 look even older than it already is.

Ducati

I wonder if some shop couldn't make a set of "stick on" stencils that could be reproduced at a reasonable price.

"Oh yeah, the lugnuts..."

A few years ago, when I first got into old Benzes, I changed to the steel rims using the longer lug nuts and fortunately turned the wheel and noticed something was "hitting" before I let the car down off the jacks drove off. :eek: :eek: :mad:

This is a bit off topic, but still refers to wheels...
I understand that chroming the old Bundt Cake rims is unadvisable because the chroming process somehow embrittles the alloy. Besides, the chrome flakes off and looks about as good as rotten teeth.
I wonder if the powdercoating process - which does not involve the same chemical process as chroming - has any downsides. I would imagine it doesn't.

Ideally, I would like to have my all-season rain tires on the stock rims, with a quadrant of really nice dry weather high traction/handling tires on the Bundt cake rims (for that four weeks we get up here when it is not pissing rain on us)

They are called Hub Cap Clips. Fastlane has them. Look here:

http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=1EH0TL2AI1FO0RCQ4E&year=1982&make=MB&model=300-DT-001&category=O&part=Hub+Cap+Clip

Ah, so you now you can clearly see that there are two kinds. So make sure you get the correct ones for your wheels. Since Fastlane doesn't show the MB part numbers, you might have to call Phil and ask.

Just so there's no confusion, the aluminum wheels I referred to before are NOT the bundt style wheels. Early 240D's came with steel but at some point they switched to an aluminum wheel that accepts the wheels covers. The way to tell them apart (if you don't have a magnet handy :D ) is the steel has 4 slots and the aluminum has a series of round holes. I have both types in my back yard.

If you use Fastlane's "part number" search, you can enter the MB part number and find the correct part. The top clip is for alloy wheels, the bottom one is for steel wheels.

"the chrome flakes off and looks about as good as rotten teeth. "

Humm, I bought a parts car a while back which had chrome wheels just as you describe, I was wondering what the deal was.

Rick...thanks, I didnt realize the "holy" ones were aluminum and required different clips.

My wheels are the steel type.
How do I attach these HubCap Clips so that they actually hold the cap onto the rim? The last thing I want is to lose a relatively scarce hubcap two kilomerters down the road when it frizbee's into oncoming traffic.

if you lose one, i have alot of spares...let me know

Of the two types, I have found that one type (the good ones) are all steel and stay put and are hard to get on and off. When I bought my 300 td wagon last month it had only one hubcap. Owner said they just fell off. I bought some (and taped and painted them) after that I DIDN'T want to lose one. I found that that 3 of the ones I bought, and the remaining original one ('85) had a grey plastic fitting that contacts the inside of the wheel. They don't stay on. The old all metal ones fit into the caps I had and are a very tight fit......

The type clips you use depends if you have "Light Alloy" or "Steel" wheels.

The clips for the alloys have the plastic on them so the clip doesn`t dig into, and gouges the aluminum.


http://www.mbca.org/sites/default/fi...heel5511_1.jpg http://www.mbca.org/sites/default/fi...heel6007_1.jpg

5 1/2" wide on left and 6" on the right.

Charlie

I'll trade you my steel clips for your plastic ones...

How many do you need. I am pretty sure that I have some in a drawer of one of my work benches.

Woops! I didn't notice that this was an eight year old thread.

Ya I knew it was an old thread and a lot of the members are long gone, but was answering old smokey.

I`ll take your plastic Hub Cap Clips also if you want to get rid of them.

Charlie

What if you have the aluminum wheels with no stripe? Any idea what size they are? As far as I can tell they have not been painted and the stripe is not hidden by brake dust either. The car in question is a 1979 280E

I looked at some of my spares.

5 1/2" wheel part# 123 400 19 02

6" wheel part# 123 400 15 02

Look on the face of the wheel, and between the bolt holes are the numbers.
I would guess coming off a 79 280E it would be a 6" wheel. But check.


Charlie

I didn't even think about part numbers. I will check later and see which ones I have. If its the 6" ones that would be very cool indeed.

besides the part# stamped on the face of the wheel, the size is also stamped into the metal and a few other #`s.

Charlie

Well the part numbers do not match the ones you listed but they are stamped with the 14x6 size which is pretty sweet.

I need a handful of the plastic ones myself (eight, specifically).

I doubt you have alloy hubbie rims with no stripe that have not been painted. All alloy hub cap rims were painted- the thinner ones with a broken stripe, and the 6 inch units with a solid stripe.

so you have 6 alloy hubbie rims? I need a single 5.5 alloy rim- do you have one for sale?

Well it turns out that you are correct... I do not have the alloy wheels after all :( I decided to check them with a magnet and there are in fact wheels that are steel that look like the alloy wheels. Kinda bummed about that but I do have a nice set of the 5.5 alloy wheels in the basement that need new tires.

The steel wheels are great! Don't feel worse they are steel at all. Do you have a set of nice hubcaps? I've got "extras" I should sell (according to my wife...:o)

Yes I do... three sets of Medium Red hubcaps in fact along with two sets of steel wheels one set of light alloy hubcap wheels and one set of bundt wheels :D