Key Phrase: "A member here somewhere..."

Not sure what it would take to dig them out of the woodwork...time to commence the search!

Regarding the painting jig, the thread I was thinking of is here.

There's another thread with some good information here.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

Just a thought.....
I remember years ago my dad had a flat tire out of town on his w109 300sel 3.5. It had the bundt alloys fitted to it. When he fit the spare alloy rim we had had bought used to have as a spare(car had hubcaps from factory) the lugbolts were just a hair and I mean a hair too long. The flat was on the rear and the too long lug bolts fouled up in the emergency brake and the wheel locked up. Thinking the worst he had it towed over 150 miles home to find out that the spare bundt(aftermarket copy, but we couldn't tell) was a little thinner allowing bolts to go in too far. We felt pretty dumb. lol
So..., I also think alloy and steel rims used different lug bolts.

Definitely...the alloy wheel lugs have a solid center and the lugs for steel wheels are hollow.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

OK OK Come to think of it, I have seen wheel covers painted where the edges looked sort of fuzzy, I think maybe the jig doesn't seal very well around the perimeter, duh!
Therefore I have taken a new heading on my compass, I no longer seek the painting jig that I thought was so hot, thanks to yeldogt's input on the other thread (and thanks to Rick Miley for the link!)
I am now looking for a place or individual that has done a super job of painting by masking, forget the painting jig idea pay someone I suppose better if they turn out nicer.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

Looks great.

I too have the painted-to-match OEM hubcaps on my 240D. I really like the look.

And when it comes time to replace the tires, I'm going with whitewalls too!

- Patrick

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1982 240D. 198k, Marine Blue/Blue, 4 Speed, Crank Windows, No Sunroof, No Rust, No Oil Leaks
2001 TDI. 197k, Lagoon Blue/Black, 5 speed, Chip, G60/VR6

I had to paint a hubcap after my wife lost one and "did not have time" to stop and retrieve it. I got pretty good results by masking the entire hub cap then cutting out the appropriate areas with an Exacto knife. The result was not quite as good as original, but from six feet away no one would notice the difference.

for my wagon, they definitely do. I have a set of Benz 1 mags on with a steel spare.. the steel spare uses a shorter set of lug nuts that the one i use for my Benz1.

Even on my "then" sedan..where i had Benz 3 mags on it.. the lugnuts were definitely longer than the ones i used for my steel spare.

Be sure to check them out.. as this could cause the problem you encountered. If you do not have the shorter lugnut, and if you have to use your spare.. use it in front.. swap the good mag wheel at the back and use the steel in front.. there is no emergency brake lines you can ruin in front with a longer lug nut.

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Mike

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1975 200 - Sold (no pix);
1978 200 - Sold - http://www.pbase.com/hboy/redbaron
1979 300TD - Sold
http://www.pbase.com/hboy/greenwagon
http://www.geocities.com/hboy726/300TD.html
1985 230E - now my daily driver...

Stevo;
I bought the pen style laqueur stick and did around the edges, the outside & inside & around the star, very carefully, by hand. I let that dry for a few days, than masked off the parts that I did not want sprayed (I used electrical tape as I did not have blue tape, and brown wrapping paper) I sprayed with the factory spray can (which cost 3 1/2 times what I pay for touch up paint for my girlfriends' Accord), and waited a few days. Then unwrapped it all - Beautiful! Except for the horrible discovery that one of the hubcaps was missing those whatchamacallits that grasp the wheel rim...
Damn - but now one side of my car looks nice and nostalgic.

Oh yeah, the lugnuts...
I did have to buy shorter ones for the stock steel rims.

One day I will media blast the Bundts, and powder coat them. Brake dust cleans off powder coat a lot easier. Meanwhile I am enjoying having made my 123 look even older than it already is.

Ducati

I wonder if some shop couldn't make a set of "stick on" stencils that could be reproduced at a reasonable price.

"Oh yeah, the lugnuts..."

A few years ago, when I first got into old Benzes, I changed to the steel rims using the longer lug nuts and fortunately turned the wheel and noticed something was "hitting" before I let the car down off the jacks drove off.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

This is a bit off topic, but still refers to wheels...
I understand that chroming the old Bundt Cake rims is unadvisable because the chroming process somehow embrittles the alloy. Besides, the chrome flakes off and looks about as good as rotten teeth.
I wonder if the powdercoating process - which does not involve the same chemical process as chroming - has any downsides. I would imagine it doesn't.

Ideally, I would like to have my all-season rain tires on the stock rims, with a quadrant of really nice dry weather high traction/handling tires on the Bundt cake rims (for that four weeks we get up here when it is not pissing rain on us)

They are called Hub Cap Clips. Fastlane has them. Look here:

http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=1EH0TL2AI1FO0RCQ4E&year=1982&make=MB&model=300-DT-001&category=O&part=Hub+Cap+Clip

Ah, so you now you can clearly see that there are two kinds. So make sure you get the correct ones for your wheels. Since Fastlane doesn't show the MB part numbers, you might have to call Phil and ask.

Just so there's no confusion, the aluminum wheels I referred to before are NOT the bundt style wheels. Early 240D's came with steel but at some point they switched to an aluminum wheel that accepts the wheels covers. The way to tell them apart (if you don't have a magnet handy ) is the steel has 4 slots and the aluminum has a series of round holes. I have both types in my back yard.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

If you use Fastlane's "part number" search, you can enter the MB part number and find the correct part. The top clip is for alloy wheels, the bottom one is for steel wheels.