I think the reason they were painted is that without paint, these alluminum-allow wheels need frequent polishing to keep them looking decent... and I think that 15-to-25 years does not qualify as "readily". I'm happy that they don't require polishing as many alloy wheels do... except for chrome... but look at what happened to MBZ when they tried to chrome plate these same alloy wheels. Yes, it flaked off and that effectively ruined the wheels! At least with painted wheels, you have some chance to refinish the wheels.

I found replacement chrome "Center Caps" for $6 each at:
http://www.performanceproducts4benz.com/productpage.aspx?pid=100671&name=Alloy%20Wheel%20Center%20Cap&part=149515
With these on and shining brightly
Sam

I figure no one will notice the imperfect paint job!
Sam

My painted wheels are 3 years old now, and the paint looks great! Perfectly smooth, and the gloss is as deep as my front fender.

Painted wheels that are done right look great, and the finish is as durable as the paint on your hood.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I guess I did grossly underestimate the paints adhesion, but this question still remains-- Why didn't Mercedes develop an alloy wheel that didn't need to be painted in the first place?

It seems like cheaping out a little bit, doesn't it?

I'm a hubcap person, so I guess that paints (heh heh get it?!=P) my view a little bit!

__________________
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i1...Untitled-1.jpg

I've seen this article on a 911 forum talking about wheel refinishing... might take a look - pretty amazing results:

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext43.shtml

Wurth® German Alloy Silver Wheel Lacquer
http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?page=subcat&man_id=14

(scroll down a little to find it)

Also - I can recommend goodspeedmotoring.com for detailing stuff. I buy a lot of my hard to find 3M / Meguiars products and buffing pads from them over the years....

__________________
~shell
As of 2/2010:
2001 CLK55 0o\=*=/o0
13.6 @ 106mph
10K mi
1984 300SD
260K mi and going and going...
97 S600
46K miles
1991 Sentra SE-R (extremely dorked with)
www.se-r.net

If you can get the Wurth wheel paint and clear coat its supposed to be an exact match. Dont sandblast aluminum with will create a texture that wont look that good. You need to use plastic media or walnut shells to blast them with.

__________________
1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

The problem is due to our corrosive environment. Water and oxygen will corrode just about anything including aluminum alloys. As Sam said, alloy wheels have to be coated with something to keep the elements (and the compounds) away from them.

Metallurgists have been dreaming of non-corroding aluminum for years ("stainless aluminum?") but have not been successful in actually making it.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Depends, buy a $3k set of AMG or Brabus wheels and they are painted because it looks good. The paint job is also very good. Those guys make some of the best wheels on the market. OZ's also come painted. Or you can get chrome. Paint lasts a very long time if taken care of.

Steel wheels are painted as are hubcaps. No modern car uses them because they make noise and are out of style. They do look good on older cars though.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

that's the best idea so far I did that too. 14 inch just looks old. don't bother making them shine, go to pull a part and get some decent size benz wheels. and don't worry about the speedometer, speed is relative

i e mailed olympic powder coat this w/e and got a reply from mark cherry today. to my disapointment their quote is $75.00 per wheel. have i missed something in the way of a thread related discount?

OK, I'm getting serious now as I sit here with sand blast grit in my hair !

Today I did my 1st real serious wet sand-blasting preparation effiort on two of these wheels that someone called "bundt-cake wheels. I am using a 1,500 PSI Karcher/Kaercher electric driven high pressure washer [~$160 washer] plus a recently available accessory for doing wet sand-blasting [~$50]. I chose this route because I'm looking at three sets of these wheels on 3 different MBZs of the same vintage.

Today I purchased 100 lbs of [ "0/30" ] fine grit washed/graded sand [~$11]that is apparently sold specifically for sand-blasting. There was another grade available [ " 2/12 " ] but it was much courser. Since I had already blasted the back side with a more course sand, I felt it was time for this finer grade to prepare the front side of these 1st two wheels. As an extra precaution, I kept the muzzle of the sand-blaster accessory at ~12-inches or greater when blasting the front of these wheels.

Below you see the results of my 1st Wheel - note the striations that were left and I’m still not exactly sure what caused this obvious coloration… maybe it’s really tough areas of the primer or a discoloration that was caused in how the casting was poured and cooled. Strange! These 1st two wheels outwardly/outside look identical but after cleaning them up I found they have P/N(s) that that are very close to one another but it is also obvious these wheels did not come from the same series of castings.

The wheel pictured below has P/N “ 126 4001902 ” and the wheel that will be shown on the POST following immediately has P/N “ 108 4000902 ”. These were given to me by my independent MBZ friend who picked them up along the way in his work so these P/N differences do not surprise me… it’s just that thought the first three digits were often the car’s chassis series. Is there a 108 chassis?

Having two wheel to more leisurely prep and paint makes this a lot easier project. I will be prepping and refinishing 6 such wheels and returning the last two to my friend.

See the photo below and my next POST and photo of the 2nd wheel that should immediately follow.
Sam

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Here is my 2nd wheel after wet sand-blasting with “ 0/30 ” fine grit sand. NOTE that there is no obvious striations or discolorations as was the case with the first wheel.

All I know is that I have a smooth enough finish that with primer, 2 coats of paint and a final clear coat should leave a finished look that will be worth of these vintage cars.

Future photos will following priming… etc.

Sam

Oops, I attached the wrong photo... here is the correct one!
Sam

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I have finally been able to get back to this project and in fact finished the first two wheels I started with. See photo below.
Also see previous POSTs labeled “Part 1…” and "Part 2..." for more details of this project.
The photo result below is from:
(1) Blasting with “0/30” grit fine sand - A lesson learned here is that I should have blasted more… especially those “striations or discolorations” that turned out to be really well bonded quality MBZ paint and primer... and are visible to this perfectionist's eye in the finished wheel ! For the most part I kept the wet sand-blaster's nozzle ~12 inches away from the wheel, but where there is stubborn paint, then obviously closer blasting is warranted.
(2) Two coats of primer- The 2nd coat can be applied ~30 minutes after the first. The primer was selected because it was specified by the paint which was selected for its color match to these wheels. Primer/Paint/Clear Coat are all 11-oz spray cans of “Dupli-Color; Truck, Van & SUV” product [see www.Dupli-Color.Com ]... and all of these are ~$7/can.
After the 2 coats of primer had thoroughly dried for several hours, I then rubbed out the finish with “0000” steel wool and then thoroughly washed the wheel with the pressure washer with water only and let this dry over night.
(3) Three coats of paint – Again, the paint is from the product line described above; color code is " T178 Silver (M) CC ". Here too you can apply the 2nd coat per instructions on the product after only ~ 30 minutes of partial drying. To be safe, I would recommend a couple of hours of drying between coats. And it is MOST IMPORTANT that you allow these 3 coats of paint dry at least a FULL 24 hours. I then used “0000” steel wool again to rub out the inevitable "spots" of dust etc that somehow get on the wet paint... and then I thoroughly washed the wheel with the pressure washer [ DO NOT get the pressure nozzle too close or you will rough up or deform the paint finish which is still not fully hard… you are only looking to make sure there is no bits of steel wool left behind to rust and later show themselves ]. Let this dry over night before going on to step 4 below.
(4) One coat of “Clear Top Coat”- I found with my 1st of these 2 wheels that becuase I had not waited a full 24+ hours after step (3) and the top coat lacquer acted like a solvent causing the paint finish to “sag” a bit in one place… so be sure to allow the paint plenty of drying time before you put on this final protective clear coat.

Spray-Can Use Technique – I elevated these wheels by placing them on a piece of plywood that was on top of our rolling garbage can… thus the wheel was ~ 4-ft off the ground which makes it much easier to work on. I found that with the wheel flat I could begin spraying and almost without stopping I could slowly walk around the can. This also allowed me to hold the spray can almost vertical. The only time I stopped was to shake the paint can ~every minute to make sure the pigment was in suspension. This way the primer/paint/lacquer was applied without frequent starting/stopping which I think would reduce the quality of the finish. Of course you want to strike a proper balance between too little and too much being applied… you want the surface to be “wet” by seeing the light reflecting off the wheel but not too much so or the product will run or sag. Having the wheel up this high out in the open with bright light helps to see the reflections of the fresh paint and thus you can better judge the amount you have applied.

With the experience I have gained from doing a set of 4 wheels without the tires in place, next I expect that I will be able to blast and paint the ’85 300SD’s wheels without removing the tires. I should be able to mark the tires with chalk and remove any wheel-balancing weights and then return them when through.

Next I want to give a brief accounting of just how much primer/paint/ lacquer I would have used on a 4-wheel project... for I will actually painting 6 wheels in this project... including the two I was loaned to start with.

Sam

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Well here is my best estimate accounting of what you will need to do what I think turned out to be a "Quality" wet sandblasting and repainting of 4 of the aluminum-alloy wheels on one of our 1980 W123 MBZ(s):

I don't count the $150 electric consumer model Kaercher electric high pressure washer or the $50 wet sand-blaster attachment for I clearly have used the washer for numerous other tasks and expect continuing use for the sandblaster. I already have a friend wanting to borrow both to do some wheels!

(1) Sand- $11 for 100 pounds and IF you can find a source for 50 pound bag that should be enough for a 4-wheel project so long as you don’t get carried away cleaning too much on the back sides of really dirty wheels. I found that much of the backsides and the fronts too were cleaned up with “Simple Green” solvent and high pressure water BEFORE the sandblaster was employed. Also I used an old very large plastic flower pot into which I placed the wheels... and found that much of the sand grit was recyclable.
(2) Primer/Paint/Top Coat – I think a 4-wheel project can be done with 2 cans of primer, 2 paint, and 1 clear coat… all 11-oz each… and these are available at the “Kragen’s AutoParts” chain and I’m sure other stores as well for ~$7/can. Brand allegiance aside, I think it is IMPORTANT to stay with the same manufacturer’s paint and clear-coat products for if you mix these you could be inviting some chemical miss-match that could give you some crazy results!
(3) Steel Wool – I used “0000” steel wool such that a “smallish” quantity for $2-3 should suffice
(4) Polish – The paint/clear-coat manufacturer recommends a final automobile paint “POLISH” [not RUBBING compound] be used on the wheels.
Again, I would caution against rubbing out the new finish too soon… for instance I will wait until the next time the car is given a good polish/wash/ & waxing!
(5) Miscellaneous – Throw in a few bucks for latex or other painter’s gloves etc, etc and I come up with a total cost of about $13/wheel. Not bad compaired to $60+/wheel.

Oh, by the way I will be purchasing for $6/wheel center inserts and I also found a source for chrome lugbolts for only $1/each... yes, $20 for a complete set for the car. I will report back to you on the quality of these lugbolts and give you a final photo with everything installed along with the new 205/70-14 tires.
Sam