W124 Wheel Updgrade Photos - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Benzwood · #16 06-06-2003, 06:10 PM

Still gray and rainy out, but here's a better "after" shot showing the center caps installed.

My wife actually took it out today in the RAIN, aaaghh!

Holson Adi · #17 06-08-2003, 10:37 PM

Hey those wheels look really nice! I like white W124's

I never liked white cars. However after I saw a mint W124 in white I'm hooked.

There was a white 500E on E-Bay

Have you ever thought of Sportline suspension?

I think that would make the car look awesome!

manny · #18 06-09-2003, 03:05 PM

Benzwood

Looks reallllllly nice.

yal · #19 06-09-2003, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Benzwood
How long have you used those pads, are they noticeably cleaner? And where'd you get them?

I've read some good things about the "green stuff" pads sold by TireRack but they seem to be available only for the front for my car.

Very noticable! Night and day. I had greenstuff and they warped my rotors. Happened to a few other people to. Haven't heard anything bad about portifields but they are a little pricey.

Benzwood · #20 06-09-2003, 10:16 PM

Thanks for the comments! I feel the same way about white cars generally, but I like them too in Mercedes. Probably because they aren't all white, but two-tone.

yal, where did you get the Maxxis brake pads?

yal · #21 06-10-2003, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Benzwood

yal, where did you get the Maxxis brake pads?

Fastlane. Link at the top of the page. They are called PBR Deluxe pads. Same company as Axxis.

Benzwood · #22 06-10-2003, 12:48 PM

Thanks... last questions:

Did you get the "Deluxe" or "Metal Master" kits, and what's the difference? Also did they come with wear sensors or did you have to purchase those separately?

yal · #23 06-10-2003, 03:50 PM

Had to buy the wear sensors separately. Someone on here is having a good experience with their metal masters, I forget who it was. I was worried about changing the OE "feel" so I stuck to the deluxe.
According to the company the metal masters last longer but are a little harder on the rotors, take longer to brake in and don't perform as well when cold. They perform the best hot though.
Its all relative I guess.

Benzwood · #24 06-14-2003, 12:39 AM

More photos... thought I'd try painting the wheel hubs and shields today. Haha... nothing's ever so simple! Required multiple trips to various stores. But I did get one wheel done.

First I used it as an excuse to buy a floor jack now rather than later. I've never owned a hydraulic floor jack before, but I plan on rotating my new tires often, and don't want to entrust my rims to a quickie shop (or pay for it), and when I started thinking of the logistics of cross-rotating wheels with only the factory jack... yecch.

The jack seems pretty nice for the money, Michelin branded import, $60 at Sam's Club. Per my searching previous posts here, I figured bigger is better, especially with import "quality" being what it is. This one seems pretty sturdy and is a 100lb behemoth.

I looked at some smaller/cheaper ones (Wal-Mart) that were just too scary looking. I'm surprised they even carry them as they just looked like lawsuits in a box.

And if a hydraulic floor jack doesn't bring a smile to your face after using the little twisty kind, well, you have no soul.

Benzwood · #25 06-14-2003, 12:41 AM

Then a pair of of 3 ton jack stands finally found at Menard's (of all places) for $15. I wanted this style with the through-pin (all the others were the ratchet type that grab on the side onto a bar, hidden from sight).

With a couple tons of hovering metal, I like this simple more robust-looking style where I can clearly see that the locking pin is engaged. I bought the last pair, I may try another store branch to try to get another matching pair in case they are discontinued.

Then I had to make some little shims so they could be used with the jacking pads on the car. Note: if you do this, don't use a soft wood 2x4 like I did (duh). The pads compressed the wood (and the rubber pads of course compress too) and so the sides of the car contacted the wood a bit.

In a previous post a member had mentioned using some thickwalled pipe slightly bent to insert in the jack holes and then rest the pipe in the jackstand cradle. That sounds like a slicker solution, and less prone to slipping off (though you get to worry about the pipe breaking instead

).

If someone is ambitious, I think a similar commercial product would be a decent seller... basically just a set of appropriately bent solid steel pins that were rated to withstand the weight.

Benzwood · #26 06-14-2003, 12:43 AM

I bought a wire wheel brush for my drill (lower right), which worked but was taking forever and wrecking my drill bearings in the process.

So... back to Menard's which had a Makita angle grinder on sale ($35) and a speed-rated brush ($10). Man, what a difference a few thousand RPM makes! Showed the rust who's boss.

The drill/brush combo is still handy for tight crevices and more detailed work. The angle grinder is too aggressive for that.

Benzwood · #27 06-14-2003, 12:45 AM

The rear wheel hub and shield, sorta-before picture (actually had been working on it for a while with the drill wire wheel before giving up and getting the angle grinder). Also this was after my original installation cleanup with a wire brush, where I did get the face pretty clean. So that's all fresh rust on the face from just a few days, yecch.

Benzwood · #28 06-14-2003, 12:48 AM

Aaaah... rust and globs of congealed brake dust finally removed!

I didn't try to strip any of the paint on the shield off, I figured it'd be better to leave the OE paint protection on there, and that the black would cover well enough especially considering that the shield isn't very visible anyway once the wheel is installed.

I then gave everything a thorough dousing with brake cleaner and wiped it clean.

Benzwood · #29 06-14-2003, 12:52 AM

After getting the wheel off and thinking about it, I decided to paint the shield and caliper black instead of the originally intended aluminum color. I thought this would give nicer contrast to the rims, plus I had an ulterior motive thinking "brake dust black" color might be a lot easier to keep respectable looking.

Back to the auto parts store for a can of black Duplicolor High Heat.

Here it is prepped for painting the black parts. I covered the area of the caliper (left side on this one) where the sensors are attached so I didn't screw something up, and the outer side is not really visible with the wheel installed anyway. Probably couldn't get away with that if I was using a more dramatic color though.

Benzwood · #30 06-14-2003, 12:58 AM

After acetone-ing the inevitable overspray... (I'm not much of a taper/painter

), and waiting for it to dry a bit, I masked off the hub for the silver painting.

I forgot to take a photo, but I had to do it in two halves because of the caliper being in the way. Kind of a pain, and the resulting paint job quality was not as good as I liked because of it. I may have to conquer my fear of removing brake components when I do the other wheels, as it would certainly make painting far easier.

I also painted the face of the hub (after stuffing paper towel scraps in the lug bolt holes first), because parts of it are visible around the wheels and it rusts badly.

I know there isn't supposed to be anything betwheen the wheel and the hub, but I cranked the wheel back on before the paint was fully cured, and there are some fine ridges on both parts that hopefully allow the paint to escape enough to make good contact. Anybody have an idea whether that's going to cause my wheel to fly off at some point?

The Duplicolor Aluminum was flashier than I thought it would be, but actually turned out to be a close match to the wheel alloy.

The result was a gratifiying difference compared to the original (of course I turned the hub to hide the drips in my paint job, hehe):