A friend of mine runs a detailing business, and he suggested using a diluted wheel cleaner for this job.   I was able to source this through him, which was a big help.
As I started cleaning, I could see the black colour was a thick gooey mud like substance that took quite a lot of effort to remove.   The wheel cleaner certainly helped to get it off.   On the first wheel, I just used a regular spray bottle and sponge.   This took hours.   The wheel was not really compatible with the spray bottle and I could not get enough on.   The sponge did eventually get the stuff off, but it took a lot of scrubbing.

The stuff dripping down reminded me of one of the anti-smoking ads they aired here in Australia during the 90s.   They had a sponge that was supposed to simulate a set of lungs and all the tar and residue from a long time heavy smoker.   It was quite an effective ad campaign at the time and this stuff certainly reminded me of it.

With 8 wheels to do, I wasn’t going to be done this year if I kept up this method, so I purchased a small pressure washer the next day, which I used for the other seven.  It took me a bit of time to get the hang of it and I think I may have slightly damaged the paint in one or two places I need to touch up.   There was already a bit of damage from when the 8 hole wheels rubbed before, so I anticipated this.

The second wheel was much faster than the first, and this included assembling and trying out the pressure washer.    On the first evening, I got one wheel done.   On the second, I also got one wheel done, but set myself up to do the next six in a marathon that lasted to 2am.

I didn’t get the wheel wells as clean as I hoped, but they were certainly much better than before.   As well as the dirt there was a thick tar like substance that wouldn’t come off without damaging the paint in some places.

The car did look rather interesting after just the rear wheels were done.  Its an interesting contrast and you really notice the fatter 225 width tyres with the deeper dish Pentas over the other wheels and their 205 width tyres.

I finally got all four mounted and I am really happy with the look.    This is now the 5th type of wheel this car has worn.   It was delivered with the colour matched hubcaps.   At some point a set of Australian made ‘Bundt’ wheels were fitted.   I never really liked those wheels, so fitted the 8 hole replicas for a couple of years.   Those wheels look better on the W126 than the C107, so I replaced them with the 15″ ‘Gullideckel’ wheels that were fitted on the 86-89 R107s.    Finally, I have the 15″ Pentas.       The Gullideckel wheels will go on my 560SEL, as the wheels on that car are in need of refinishing.

The only thing I would change is the bolts.  Even though I made them better, I am still not all that happy with how they look, especially contrasted with the wheels.   I’ll probably look to get a better set at some point.  Overall I am really like the look of a 450SLC with AMG ‘Penta’ wheels.   I think they really suit the car – far better than the modern wheels some fit.

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The big downside of the 15s over the 16s is the tyre availability.     The table below outlines possible sizes I could have considered.    They are all compared to the overall circumference of the original wheel/tyre combination.

The easiest and most obvious choice would have been one of the 205 sizes.   Both are a fairly standard tyre size still used by many mainstream cars.   As an example, 205/65R15 is the standard size of the later R107 models with 15″ wheels.   I have the Michelin Energy XM2 tyre on my 560SEL in this size and it seems like a good tyre.

However, for the AMG wheels I wanted something wider with a bit more grip.   Certainly, looking at old AMG catalogs, they mostly offered the wheels with wider tyres.    I was immediately able to rule out two sizes – 225/55 and 235/55.  There were no tyres at all available in those sizes.

The next most obvious size would have been 215/60R15.   This is only 0.4% different to standard, so had the least speedometer impact.  However, when looking for tyres in this size, the availability of anything I would want to use was terrible.   There were some light truck/van tyres available, but they would have given the 450SLC a terrible ride.   There was one model that looked promising at first – the Radar Dimax classic tyre.   This tyre is advertised as specifically designed for classic use.  While I didn’t find any reviews of their classic tyre, I found pretty poor reviews of Radar tyres in general.   I couldn’t find anyone who had tried these tyres at all, let alone liked them.

Finally, I settled on 225/60R15.   These seemed closest to the size AMG would have used then new for 15″ AMG Penta wheels.   I was able to verify with somebody who used this size with Penta wheels on a 450SLC, which gave me confidence.

The tyre selection was not great in this size either, but there were a few options.    In the end I went with the Hankook Kinergy Eco2 K435.  The Eco2 name put me off a bit, as I assumed they were probably optimized for long tread life and fuel consumption vs performance.   However, they got by far the best reviews I could find in that size.   It also helped that there was a buy three, get four deal on at the time.

The tyres are now mounted and ready to go on the car.   I also have the correct centre caps ready.   The 450SLC is about to go in and have the front subframe mounts changed, so I’ll fit the new tyres after that.

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I thought of a few options for the SLC.

1. Standard 14″ Steel wheels with colour matched hubcaps.   These were the original wheels that came on my car.   The proper 14×6.5 wheels with the fins to cool the brakes are still available, although getting harder to find.   The tyre selection on this size of wheel is quite lacking.
2. W126 15×7 Steel wheels with colour matched hubcaps.   The colour matched hubcaps were available in 15″ for special orders, ambulances etc, but are now very very expensive.   Still, there are much better tyres in this size.
3. Standard 14×6.5 Fuchs alloy wheels.   These are the standard alloy wheels for the period.   I have a set of copy wheels in this size, but I’ve never liked this wheel and they have the same tyre availability issues as the 14″ steelies.
4. Period AMG wheels.   These came in both 15 and 16″ and a few different styles.   The most well known are the AMG “Penta” five spoke style.   I think these look great on the 107 SLC.

After considering all these options, I decided to start looking out for an original set of 15″ AMG Penta wheels.   I think the 15×7 size work much better on the 107 SLC.  They keep the ride and look better.   I am not a fan of big wheels on classic cars.    These wheels were not actually called Penta by AMG, but one of the popular replicas had that name and it stuck.

I found a set that had been refinished not so long ago on facebook marketplace.   They were exactly what I was looking for.   The only downside was they didn’t come with lug nuts or centre caps.    As they were in Melboure, it was just as well they didn’t have tyres.   It would have made the freight too expensive.

Lug bolts shouldn’t be a problem as it looks like I can use the bolts that go with the 14″ factory alloys.  I have a set of these.   Centre caps were a bit more of a challenge.   Unlike some of the copies, the original AMG wheels use a much narrower centre cap.

Surprisingly, even though they date from before AMG was acquired by Mercedes-Benz, they are still available.   The part number is H WA 201 400 01 25.   They are not cheap, but I was able to grab a set of five from the classic centre.

The next step is to choose the tyres.   This isn’t a simple as it sounds, so will be covered in the next episode.   I think they are going to look great on the car.

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