Paint yer nuts

[jberks]

Ok its bolts but you get the point.
My wheels looked a bit tatty. It took a while to suss out why but finally the penny dropped. It was those 4 muddy brown bolts. So, I pulled one bolt at a time so it was still driveable, ran a wire wool brush over them to remove the old paint and rust and per Malcolms comments, sprayed them up with silver hammerite.
For the sake of a tin of hammerite and a probably an hour's effort in total, I think it was well worth it. I don't have a proper 'before' pick but I imagine many of you do!
A couple of pics anyway.

 

[Cole@MBS]

Nice job, Jberks, makes all the difference!!

 

[television]

Well done Jb it does make a huge difference, the thing is when you do them up with the wrench it hardly marks them, even if it did you cannot see it in the recess.

Mine still look like new after 2½ years.

 

[DAVE HULL KR]

I did the same with my locking nuts, they look great, the paint i used was the chrome stuff from halfords, i managed to buy covers for the wheel nuts, ony £20 for the full set from fleabay,

 

[s999sws]

they look very good, on my E280CDi onyl the locking nuts have gone rusty, they have already been changed twice under warranty. How many coats did you give them?
SWS

 

[s999sws]

sorry, mis type, should be "only"
SWS

 

[television]

2 coats is fine, the aerosols paints are not very thick

 

[sailorP]

Yellow Nuts!

You are lucky you have silver nuts
The previous owner painted mine yellow, to match the body colour.
The yellow nuts cause more comments that the yellow body, most opinions being variations on 'yuk'
I haven't got round to repainting, but since it seems so easy, I might do it when I change the tyres this spring.
Or I could just take them out one at a time.
You reckon two coats of silver and a bit of lacquer would do it?
The only issue would be waiting for the paint to dry.

 

[jberks]

You are lucky you have silver nuts
The previous owner painted mine yellow, to match the body colour.
The yellow nuts cause more comments that the yellow body, most opinions being variations on 'yuk'
I haven't got round to repainting, but since it seems so easy, I might do it when I change the tyres this spring.
Or I could just take them out one at a time.
You reckon two coats of silver and a bit of lacquer would do it?
The only issue would be waiting for the paint to dry.

I didn't bother with laquer. After all they're recessed so its just a case of having something silver in there instead of brown (or yellow) looking back at you. So yes, 1 at a time.
2 coats of hammerite is all I did. I drilled some holes in a piece of wood and screwed them in to hold them upright and left them outside in the sun and breaze for 3 hours between coats, then a good 12 hours to harden up properly, and then refit and on to the next set. It only takes a minute to put a coat on (during an ad break) then forget until the following day. The car's perfectly safe with one bolt missing. After all, most cars only have 4 to begin with.

 

[s999sws]

I'm not so sure about driving around with a wheel bolt missing from each wheel. I bet the insurance company would have something to say if a serious accident occurred. In fact they would probably wriggle out of settling any claim made on them.
SWS

 

[television]

I'm not so sure about driving around with a wheel bolt missing from each wheel. I bet the insurance company would have something to say if a serious accident occurred. In fact they would probably wriggle out of settling any claim made on them.
SWS

With the light nights you could do 4 each night of the week, and all done in 4 nights

 

[br0ke]

I tried painting mine too but was never very happy with them as it just would not last

I did look at the proper Mercedes ones from Ebay Germany where they have stainless steel on the end of steel and as good as they looked I couldn't justify the £50 delivered so in the end I got the plastic chrome nut covers and fitted 4 to the standard nuts. The 5th one for the locking nut took a bit of imagination.

I cut the head off the plastic cover and left a few mil. I then ground a magners bottle opener magnet (got 4 with a case of magners) to have 5 sides and glued it into the head of the nut cover. Popped it on and they all look good now. Dead easy to clean as well.

Result...

 

[jberks]

I'm not so sure about driving around with a wheel bolt missing from each wheel. I bet the insurance company would have something to say if a serious accident occurred. In fact they would probably wriggle out of settling any claim made on them.
SWS

I did consider it, but, firstly I doubt they'd notice - not something an assessor is going to check (and I'd pop them back on if I was expecting an assessor) and secondly, why? The bolts hold the wheels on, that's all. They are hub-centric so the centring is handled by the hub not the bolts so there are no handling or safety issues surrounding 1 missing bolt. If the wheel came off then fair enough but assuming you've made sure the other 4 are torqued up ok then that's not going to happen so there really isn't a way that a missing bolt could contribute to an accident or make the car in any way less safe. Obviously if you're planning a track day it might be an idea to have all 5 in there but for normal usage 4, temporarily, is fine IMO.

 

[television]

I did consider it, but, firstly I doubt they'd notice - not something an assessor is going to check (and I'd pop them back on if I was expecting an assessor) and secondly, why? The bolts hold the wheels on, that's all. They are hub-centric so the centring is handled by the hub not the bolts so there are no handling or safety issues surrounding 1 missing bolt. If the wheel came off then fair enough but assuming you've made sure the other 4 are torqued up ok then that's not going to happen so there really isn't a way that a missing bolt could contribute to an accident or make the car in any way less safe. Obviously if you're planning a track day it might be an idea to have all 5 in there but for normal usage 4, temporarily, is fine IMO.

I have to agree. there was the man who got a puncture driving home out side a loon bin. While changing the wheel the man knocked all of the nuts down a drain. he stood there scratching his head, when a man who was leaning over the wall said " why not take off one from each of the other wheels and you can driver slowly to a garage and buy some more" The man said thats amazing, what are you doing in there, he replied " I am mentally retarded not ****** stupid" and walked away