I thought these pictures might prove of interest - I replaced the curb-rashed 15 hole originals on my 560SEL with 8 hole W140 style painted wheels a year ago. New Old

Five W8 wheels cost ~$525 shipped from FRH International and came with the correct 25mm offset. The price included five new bolts per wheel - a couple of threads shorter than OEM but they work fine. They also came with new center caps. They are the same size as the originals and much easier to clean. I wax them quarterly to help preserve the clear coat. FRH also has chrome versions - I have no experience of these. Wheel balance weights are mounted internally to preserve the clean look.

To keep brake dust down on the front wheels I use Kleen Wheels dust shields - my conservative driving style does not result in any overheating problems with these. It's a nice fix if you use the soft OEM brake pads which put out a lot of brake dust.

FRH advertises in The Star or you can find them at FRH International

Nice car! looks great! Mine's here.........

http://www.benzworld.org/gallery/showlink.asp?CatID=1019&parentID=37&subname=Todd&parentname=W126_S,SE,SEC,SD,SDL_Class

Tell me, does the finish on the face of the wheels extend into the holes or are the holes a different finish?

Any idea of who the manufacturer is or country of manufacture?

Do you need lug caps with the lug bolts that they provide?

That is exactly the setup I'm looking to put on my 420SEL. I want to stay with 15" because my tires are new and I don't want to sacrifice any ride quality.

I presume you're happy with them?

Thanks for any and all info.

__________________
1990 420 SEL / 151K mi.

The finish extends into the holes.

Made in Italy.

No lug caps needed - the ones supplied are semi-gloss chrome, not unalike OEM, but with marginally inferior finish, and slightly shorter. Same 17mm socket size to remove.

Yes - I am happy with them. Also, they needed little in the way of balancing weights, suggesting quality manufacture.

I think the key to keeping these looking good is to wax them from time to time - after all, that is a paint finish in a very hostile environment, probably explaining why you see so many older wheels with peeling clearcoat.

I have heard many horror stories of poor after market chroming which peels; in the event that's not an issue for me as I prefer the painted look.

For me the main reasons for purchase were that the originals were horribly curb-rashed by the PO, the clearcoat was shot, the 15 slots had seemingly never been cleaned properly and were caked with hard brake dust deposits. While the 15 hole wheels look superficially easy to keep clean, they are anything but, owing to the 15 small, deep, dirt retaining slots. By contrast, the 8 holes are a dream to clean. Finally, FRH offers the correct 25mm offset (ET25) so that you have no clearance problems and, yes, they take the same tires (195 65 15" if I recall) as OEM. I called Capitol West who advertise these in The Star ($135 each, or so), at the time of my purchase, but they did not stock the correct offset. Plus, FRH is out of state (OR, I am in CA) so I get the great pleasure of knowing that I have done my fiscal duty of reducing government waste by not paying CA sales tax.

I bought five, to make sure the spare matched. Amazingly, I sold the old rims on eBay for ~$300 (someone in Chicago who needed junk rims for winter use), so my net investment was ~$200!

I run Continental Touring tires - an inexpensive tire which is fine for my conservative driving style, though it handles less well than, say, a Michelin MXV4 which costs much more. The Contis tend to need small steering corrections at speed, in contrast to the Michelins. Tire wear on new tires 10,000 miles ago suggests a 25-30,000 mile life. My use is 50/50 freeway/city. I run the tire pressures recommended by the factory on the inside of the fuel filler lid.

I had the balancing weights placed inside the rims to preserve cosmetic apperance. Once mounted on the outside, these tend to take the clearcoat with them when removed, in my experience. Many aver that that's not optimal balancing, but as I do not drive over 80 mph, the difference, if any, is not noticeable to me.

After many years of experimentation with after market brake pads, I have reverted to the relatively soft OEM ones. The Repco Metalmasters I used for many years on my 300SD wore slowly, reduced brake disk life, put out a rusty, easy to remove, light deposit on the wheels (in contrast to the OEM greasy, black, hard to remove deposit) and needed more brake pedal pressure compared to OEM. I fitted Kleen Wheels in the front rims and now enjoy similar front and rear brake dust deposit rates, so you don't get the 'black front, grey rear' look common to many MBs on the road. If you drive hard and brake hard, some experts maintain that Kleen Wheels overheat the brakes, but I have not seen any objective, controlled tests supporting this, so cannot comment. They work fine for me. I do not consider the dignified, refined W126 chassis fit for boy racer driving.

Hope that helps.

Thomaspin,

Your pricing on the wheels indicates that you only paid ~$105 per wheel including shipping??

That's seriously CHEAP. I've been on the lookout for some 15 hole wheels and the cheapest I could find for aftermarket was at TR for approx. $135/ea. not shipped.

I just wanted to verify your pricing. If it's correct, then this place has got some awesome prices.

Chris
'85 300SD

Chris -

That's what I paid a year ago, with lug bolts, caps and shipping to CA from OR.

Suggest you recheck for current prices.

Looks like ~$585 shipped for 4 wheels of the 15 hole variety

Not quite as cheap as I'd hoped. Puts them right about where TR is.

Chris
'85 300SD

Chris -

If the 15 holes you refer to are the same price as the 8 holes I bought, that's a shocking 56% increase - 39% unit price + 12% depreciation in the Euro since I bought mine, which they are not passing to the consumer.

BTW, I always liked the pre-15 hole 'Bundt' style wheels on my 1983 300SD, but they were 14" and did look a little small on the car.

No longer a bargain.

Thomaspin:

No idea if the 15 and 8 hole wheels are the same price or not.

I like the bundt wheels too.....but like you said, the 14's just look kinda tiny. I also like the updated styling of the 15 hole wheels.

Chris
'85 300SD

Chris -

Cheap Bundts may be available from wreckers - $50 each? Then have them blasted with walnut shells or whatever and repaint/clearcoat yourself. My wife's SLC has 15" Bundts which are OEM so they are out there, but I am unsure of their offset so a little research may pay.

I actually find the Bundts (guess who gets to wash the cars in our household.....) easier to clean than the 15 hole ones as there are no relatively inaccessible orifices.

Thomaspin,

Thanks for the reply and info but it looks like the price on the 8-holes has gone WAY up since you got yours. Just my luck. ( insert persecution complex here ).

I contacted FRH by phone yesterday and they want $139.90 per wheel at this point !!! It'll cost me more for 4 of them than you paid for 5. They don't take credit cards so you either have to send a check/money order or get socked an extra $16 for COD. Add in $60 for shipping to NJ and I'm up over $600.

My OEM 15 slots are structurally sound ( no curb rash) but the clearcoat is saying "sayonara" in a big way. I've got a deal where I can get 4 newly media blasted and refinished 15 slot ( real forged Mercedes OEM's) for my wheels and $350 so I'm prolly gonna go that way. Either that or bite the bullet on the higher price and try to off mine on e-bay for a couple hundred. It's bigtime winter here today ( 6" snow ) so it's something I could put off for a month or two.

__________________
1990 420 SEL / 151K mi.

Todd -

My recall was suspect - I paid $593 for 5, shipped (from OR to CA it was only $30) a year ago, or $118.60 each, still a good deal less than they are asking now. And yes, I did have to send them a cashier's check - it looks like a pretty small time operation, though I seem to recall they have been advertising in The Star for many years.

The only really painful part about selling on eBay was packing the wretched, old ones and lugging them to UPS - no more than 2 rims per box to make it manageable, so 3 boxes in my case. Still, my overall, all in cost was very reasonable.

Sorry if I mislead you on the pricing.

Yo Thomaspin,

Finally got my 15", 8 holers. Got a great deal on them ( my crusty OEM rims plus $125 ) from a local Euro place that services my car. These wheels came off a 300SEL that somebody had crashed. I think they look great. Opinions are welcome.

Keep in mind that it was a pretty dreary day today in NJ. Car is midnight blue/blk leather.

__________________
1990 420 SEL / 151K mi.

Nice wheels...and car.

Great price too.

Well done.

Thanks T,

I'm with you in that I prefer to maintain the ride quality which I think is best served with 15" wheels. I've read alot of threads where people slapped 17" rims on the W126 SEL's and while some of them look pretty nice, they all admit that the ride quality suffers. I tend to think that Bruno Sacco and the MBZ peeps had good reason to go with the 15" wheels.

I think the 8 holers give the W126 just enough of an update without sacrificing the ride and yet still add some style without detracting from the original lines of the design. All in all , I'm quite pleased with the effect.

Thanks again for the original post as it confirmed that that was the way to go.

__________________
1990 420 SEL / 151K mi.

15" OEM Fuchs Bunds are 7x15 ET25 which means same as stock 1986+ W107 and W126.

Very dificult to find (and very expensive!) but I did manage find a new set but when I tried them on my 1989 W107 SL they did not fit. On 1986+ SLs the wheels touch the front brakes, would need at least 25mm spacers. They do however fit all W126, also the 1986+.