Wanted to Buy : reproduction 280 hubcaps

[PBH]

Hi All

Could someone please advise a decent vendor that i could source reproduction 280 hubcaps from... Its my first 280 and i will start with repro... I can see authenticclassics.com has expensive NOS hubcaps, but was wondering other members could advise a place to source repros... Many thanks Paul

[Pawel66]

I wanted to help, but found only this:
https://www.niemoeller.de/en/w113/w113/B044/400/10

But it is still quite expensive.

I was going to suggest to ask at Mercedes (I bought a pair there 3 months ago) and they were $500, so less expensive, but they are not there any more... ( A 115 401 03 24).

Ebay, I guess. Please note these hub caps were used for many models, including W123, which were very popular. Just W123 also used 15" ones, you need 14".

[PBH]

Many thanks... Yes expensive!!!

[Benz Dr.]

I have quite a few caps here. PM if you still need something.

[mdsalemi]

You might have to look around and you might have to make some phone calls and emails rather than just searching on websites.

The reason for this is quite simple. The three point star is a protected logo of Mercedes-Benz and believe me there is no more logo from any company anywhere on earth that is more protected. Any reproduction hubcap is basically illegal. When they find them, they shut it down very quickly. Nobody wants to go up against the Mercedes-Benz lawyers. Their pockets are very deep and their patience is very long.

That being said there were plenty of them made by different manufacturers. So there are going to be some available out the back door and through eBay.

None of them are nearly as nice as the ones from Mercedes-Benz.

[Jack the Knife]

Seeing as you'll have to paint them anyway, I'm not sure why you wouldn't get some nearly-free originals and restore 'em.

[mdsalemi]

Hardly free, though plentiful. There are many of them for sale on eBay in the $50-$100 each range. That doesn’t mean you can’t find them for less money privately. This is for used ones which generally include, (at no extra charge 😉), road rash, dents, and scratches of varying degrees. Some of the original older ones are chrome-plated steel, and might have varying degrees of rust and compromised chrome.

That may or may not fit in with anybody’s plans.

The outlaw reproductions I mentioned, like the current OEM ones, are stainless steel. Reproductions were available at a reasonable price, but with a stainless steel that didn’t polish up very nicely and was a completely different grade than OEM. Again this may or may not fit in with anybody’s plans.

Yes, there’s a bit of paint on the full wheel covers, but there’s also a lot of exposed metal.