Anybody ever painted the hubcaps?
 

Masking the emblem and rings is what I'm wondering about.... It would be great if MB provided stencils. One friend who paints houses suggested chrome surfaces and emblem be coated with vaseline that spray paint wont stick to. I'm thinkin of using a brush, but dont want brush marks on painted surface. If stencils are available, I'd sure like to know how to get some.

I know that stencils were available! I have a friend who may be inclined to lend his, I'll call him and ask.

Traditional way to mask brightwork...
 

is to coat the part paint ISN'T to adhere to with wax (crayon will do). The whole surface is then spray painted, and when dry the painted wax is just wiped off, leaving "shiny."

Saw an official m/b hubcap painting jig not unlike a logo-shaped cookie cutter on ebay a few years ago. It simply blocked off the tri-star area as well as the area outside of the painted circle's perimeter.

With mine I masked them off and spray painted (some shops can custom-mix paints -- like $20/can or so) after stripping the old paint. My efforts required some fine detail work w/ a razor blade to get things right. The wax method described above sounds like a better bet.

Regards,

You might also consider the 3M plastic base masking tapes. I used a 1/4" wide tape when I painted my hub-caps and it formed the curves of the ring perfectly.

What did you use to remove the old paint?

What you want is here, but they say it is no longer available. At least now you know they are out there, and that the part number is 115 589 42 63 00.

Here's a masking tool: Ebay Auction

$99 + .... at ebay auction for the official tool makes my scotish blood run cold. Am gonna go with crayon method for star and ring..... then mask the outer ring with tape making a wall to prevent overspray.

Got an electric cup gun on loan and nearby paint store can exactly match enamel color using electronic device. Am thinkin primer coat on Saturday - then finish coat on Sunday.

Is it necessary to strip the old paint? I've already sanded the surface and feathered the edges where it has worn down to the chrome.

Masking
 

Masking tool looks good but $99 Hhmm. When I painted the caps on the 300D used my kids poster paint and a small brush and painted the bright metal areas, spray painted the cap - and then washed the poster paint (and enamel) off. Cheap and produced good results.

I purchased one of these back around 1982 - I remember it being well over 100 usd back then -- I can tell you - it is very hard to get OE results with tape.

I purchased it because my local dealer started to charge too much to paint the covers.

When MB only had the covers - they were painting them all the time. You could always go in a pick up a new white or blue cap that they had painted.

By the early 80's all the new cars had wheels and by then you had to order the covers. I painted many myself using paint I got that was MB matched and in a spray can!

Those masking tools don't work that well either. I had mine done with a borrowed tool, and my earlier tape job came out better...

My painter overlayed the areas not to receive paint with masking tape, then trimed it with a razor blade to get clean edges and sharp corners. The results look very nice.

Tom
1967 250SL

The factory spray on the hub caps did not have a sharp line -- it was more of a fade.

It required a little skill to get it right -- if you look at many of them you can see what I am talking about.

The one piece hubcaps used a different spray cover than the two piece.

I had to paint many more one piece hubcaps -- they would fly off all the time, and often got curb rash. The center of the two piece never came off.

I always liked the look of the older ones.