WARNING: Original hubcentric M416 wheels and Powder Coating

[Calaski8123]

Little public service announcement for anyone with the original M416 hubcentric wheels and they're getting them powder coated... They have EXTREMELY tight tolerances.

I didn't know this would be a problem. I got the wheels powder coated black and I painted my axle and hub with POR15 and black Rust-Oleum. Got Falken Wildpeaks mounted the beautiful wheels and they look great.

Got out of work early today so I decided to put the axle back into the trailer. Got it bolted up to the leaf springs and went to go put the wheels on to get it rolling around under its own weight. Slap the wheels on and tightened up the lug nuts but the wheel would not sit flush against the Hub. It was totally off axis and I couldn't figure out why until I realized the wheel was not fully seating around the Hub. I took the layer of POR15 and paint off the hub first but it still would not seat.

Unfortunately I had to take a Dremel sander to the inside rim of the wheel and take off the powder coating down to bare metal. Even then I really couldn't get it to seat on its own, had a crank down on the lug nuts to get it to fully seat correctly. Sucks because my beautiful Wheels now are all marred up. Took me two and a half hours to get the wheels mounted on to the hubs. It was too dark to really see what the total damage was I'll have to check tomorrow and see what I can touch up with some paint to just keep it from rusting.

Anyway I'm not sure what the powder coater can do but those tolerances are tight tight tight. So if you're considering getting those rims powder coated take that into consideration before you go.

That said I really like the original wheels. I mounted 215/85/16's on them and they look fantastic.

I read a bunch of people on this forum and others that powder coated the original rims and nobody mentioned this.

Hopefully somebody else can avoid my mistakes.

 

[smritte]

The center hole is called the hub centric.How its suppose to work is, the tight fit will take some of the load off the lug nuts, insure the wheel is perfectly centered and puts the load on the hub through the contact.
All rims are supposed to have this contact even though most don't. Yours was just close tolerance when you powder coated it. If it had been some of the rims I've dealt with, they would have been snug without the coating. Most aftermarket rims (and factory) are made considerably bigger inside so they fit everything (lug spacing doesn't count here). In some racing classes you must buy a spacer/adapter so the centric is tight. Even though this is supposed to be snug on every rim, it ends up being easier to make the hole bigger due to cost. This is why your problem should be common but in reality its rare.

The issue your going to have now is two fold. First is going to be removing the rim. Second is going to be removing the rim after you get some corrosion between the two. Most German cars this is a tight clearance, removing a rim with a bit of corrosion is a real pain in the butt. I've had a few where I had to lower the car, lay on my back and kick the rim will all my strength to get it loose.

My advice is to paint your hub, take a floppy disk sander and sand a bit off your hub. Use the paint as a guide to try to remove it even. Paint again and try to install rim. Look at the paint you scrape, those are the high areas. Repeat until the rim goes on smooth. The cast iron on the hub is real thick and your only taking a little bit off. If it's easier to do the rim then do that instead. Make sure you have no contact so you don't force the rim crooked. Just make it close. Its possible your rim is not perfectly centered because you drew it on with the lug nuts.

Once your done paint the bare metal on the rim (solvent the paint off the powder coat), paint the hub and apply a thin layer of grease to the hub. The grease will reduce the corrosion if the fit is still snug. I grease the outer hub on all the tight fitting german cars I've worked on.

As you posted, no one has ever posted this issue. Even if I had a Mercedes rim to powder coat, I personally wouldn't have thought about the issue but would have realized it once it was done.

 

[Calaski8123]

Thanks for the tips. The wheels are on now and they are riding fine but I am worried about corrosion. I didn't even think about problems removing the wheels later. I'm going to take them off and paint them and then grease them to ease installation and prevent corrosion. I'm not sure I can take much more off. The inside rim of the wheel and the hub are basically bare metal. I had the wheels on and off a few times before powder coating. They weren't a problem. I'm not sure why they are now. Even with taking the paint and powder coat off they are still tight. I need to figure something out though because the wheels look bad where I had to sand them and they're gonna get worse if not protected.

 

[AggieOE]

Must. Have. Pictures.

 

[Calaski8123]

Must. Have. Pictures.

I can post pics but it's just going to be the wheels not on the hub or the wheels on the hub after I sanded the powder coat off and coated with some paint. Not sure what that's going to add to the thread.

I was just letting people know that powder coating might close those tight tolerances too much and to be careful.