Finally, good news about the 300D - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

KAdams4458 · #1 06-08-2007, 08:02 PM

While I was chasing electrical gremlins, installing steering parts, and resoldering a fuel sender, my wife was busy media blasting the Bundt wheels I picked up from a local guy with a cache of old MB parts. Once she was finished, I touched up a few scratches in them with some epoxy and shot them with Duplicolor silver wheel paint and clear coat. Whoo!

The ol' girl ought to look a lot better with the fresh wheels and tires, and it gave me a chance to use a dial indicator to ensure the rims were straight and true.

I know this may technically be wheel and tire forum material, but I wanted to give you fine diesel folks something besides doom and gloom oriented questions for a change.

All four shots are of one wheel, which happens to be date coded 8-73. The tire was so rotten that it came off in pieces. I was concerned that this one might be too far gone to be saved when I saw the amount of corrosion that had been hidden by the tire. This one also had the most severe curb rash out of the bunch, and required at least four hours of intensive prep work prior to spraying the paint. It was a basketcase, for sure.

Before...

After...

I'll give bonus points for anyone who can identify a wheel dimension based on the blue stripes around the inside of the rim!

dwoloz · #2 06-08-2007, 08:17 PM

I'm more impressed by the wife that bead blasts than the wheel

(Although it is quite a nice wheel refurb)

KAdams4458 · #3 06-08-2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwoloz

I'm more impressed by the wife that bead blasts than the wheel

(Although it is quite a nice wheel refurb)

Actually, so am I.

I probably spent half the time I was supposed to be working on the car watching her at the blast cabinet and discussing it with my friend.

And thanks for the compliment... Err. Both of them.

lietuviai · #4 06-08-2007, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

I'll give bonus points for anyone who can identify a wheel dimension based on the blue stripes around the inside of the rim!

I've never heard of any colored stripes in the rim but if you give me the part number I can give you the size and what model they came from. The first three numbers aren't always indicative of the model.

KAdams4458 · #5 06-08-2007, 09:38 PM

In the second photo. you can see a blue stripe on one side of the wheel. The Bundts I've encountered all have a stripe of paint around the rim on both sides where the bead of the tire sits. 6" versions all have a reddish orange paint, and 6.5" versions use blue. I've no idea what colour the 5.5" or 7" versions use.

I must admit that I have two pairs of 6.5X14 Bundts with different part numbers, but all four have a 30mm offset, Two are part number 1084001002, and use metal valve stems. One of which was made in 1973, and the other in 1981. The other two are part number 1264002102, which use standard rubber valve stems, and were manufactured in 1982.

Some combination, eh?

300SD81 · #6 06-08-2007, 10:12 PM

I just learned that there are different sizes of bundts... :/ Do they all accept the same tire, and is it ok to have 6s on front and 6.5s in the back, or the other way around? I have 2 6s and 2 6.5s from the junkyard that I want to restore... Lucky too, I grabbed all 4 on 4 different trips from 4 different cars without knowing they were different...

KAdams4458 · #7 06-08-2007, 10:24 PM

Actually, I'd think it would be acceptable to run the 6.5" in back and 6" in front. Toss one of those 6.5" rims on the front of your car one day and see just how close the tire rod comes to the rim. I know it's darn close on mine.

At least you're not in the position I was. My car came with four Bundts, one of which is hopelessly bent, and one of which was 6" while the others were 6.5". I now have three each two different 6.5" versions that are in acceptable condition to be refinshed, so I picked two from each pile to use for my car. Now, what am I ever going to do with this 6" Centra Bundt, I do not know.

You can fudge tire widths a bit. a 195 (195mm width) is more fitting to 6" rim, but will fit on a 6.5", so you could likely get away with four matching tires on two sets of rims.

Do you know the part numbers on the rims? I've got a good list going, and may be able to identify offsets and such for you. One of these days I'll post all about Bundts in the Wheel and Tire forum, since no good post exists detailing all of the Bundts and their differences.

lietuviai · #8 06-08-2007, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

I must admit that I have two pairs of 6.5X14 Bundts with different part numbers, but all four have a 30mm offset, Two are part number 1084001002, and use metal valve stems. One of which was made in 1973, and the other in 1981. The other two are part number 1264002102, which use standard rubber valve stems, and were manufactured in 1982.

Some combination, eh?

The wheels you have are for 107, 116, 126 models. The 73 is from a 107 while the others are from 126's.
The 195's are the way to go with the 6 & 6.5 rims as the MB catalog specifies the 195 size for both rims.

KAdams4458 · #9 06-08-2007, 11:35 PM

Well, I'm going to try 205's. I sure hope they clear the tie rod, as I recently discovered the hubcentric spacers in the trunk of my car are not serviceable.

lietuviai · #10 06-08-2007, 11:45 PM

hubcentric spacers

#11 06-08-2007, 11:48 PM

I have 205/70-14 tires on my 6-1/2 inch wheels (on my 300D) without any problems. You don't need spacers.

Kuhlrover · #12 06-09-2007, 01:21 AM

What type of media did you use for blasting? I just picked up 4 alloy wheels off of craigslist for $100.00. I was considering using baking soda. It not to abrasive, I can get it in bulk at Costco and it not too expensive.

TimK

KAdams4458 · #13 06-09-2007, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lietuviai

hubcentric spacers

My mistake... Hubcentric adapters... Even though they're really 5mm spacers that just use longer wheel bolts, so there's no real adapting involved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

I have 205/70-14 tires on my 6-1/2 inch wheels (on my 300D) without any problems. You don't need spacers.

That is a big relief. I'll sleep better tonight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuhlrover

What type of media did you use for blasting? I just picked up 4 alloy wheels off of craigslist for $100.00. I was considering using baking soda. It not to abrasive, I can get it in bulk at Costco and it not too expensive.

TimK

I used glass bead and about 40 PSI at the nozzle, or rather, my wife did. Even the old worn paint used on these Fuch wheels seems to be very tough, so I'm not sure how effective soda will be. I'd say it'll likely require a bit higher PSI at the gun to do much in a reasonable amount of time, but I encourage you to try it and post results. In my case, the glass bead media was all ready on hand, and the wheels had a slight corrosion pitting in a few places. For those spots, I took over and cranked the pressure a bit higher in order to peen the metal as extra insurance against possible stress risers. At 90 PSI you can actually watch the transformation of the surface. - It's quite impressive what those tiny little glass beads can do.

I'm going to add a caution. I noticed that all four wheels had greenish yellow primer beneath the top coat. That's zinc chromate primer, and you don't want that kind of dust in your lungs, so use a blast cabinet with a good dust collector attached. For that matter, try to salvage as much of the original primer as possible, because nothing is gonna stick to aluminum like zinc chromate, so it's an ideal primer for whatever paint you intend to finish the wheels with. Using soda may help you retain as much of the original primer as possible.

Jaclson · #14 06-09-2007, 09:06 AM

My wife will not even drive my 83 300d let alone sand blast the wheels. She says it's too "stodgy". It sure would be nice to have someone with similar interests to work on this car with. Lucky man you are, with great looking wheels.

captainmonk · #15 06-09-2007, 02:30 PM

I was impressed that the wheel was in the kitchen I'm not allowed in the house period after working on the boat truck car or anything else Good work keep her!!!!!!!!!!!