300E and 300F hubcap disassembly
by John Hertog - Crossram Motors
Turns out that 300E or 300F hubcap disassembly can be either a real easy task - or a complete nightmare. I would say that it all depends where the hubcap ( and car) spent their life - in the dry Southwest or the humid East Coast.

I had a pile of 22 hubcaps, and wanted to take them all apart for repainting, installing new medallions, and possibly refinishing the centers as well.. a quarter of these hubcaps came apart effortlessly. The others - forget it ! I then had to figure out a way to disassemble the reluctant ones, without damage to the shell or aluminium center "gear" . It was not an easy task .

First, let's analyze the hubcap and its components: please click HERE to see - and understand - how one of these hubcaps is put together !

So... you have removed the three bolts from the backside of the hubcap... and nothing is coming apart ! Well.. you have a problem. It's called corrosion . The cause is a galvanic reaction between the mating surfaces of the aluminium "gear" and the metal dome... resulting in the two parts being welded together . Please take a look at what you are up against:

Forget about heating in oven - we tried that . Forget about dipping in a vat of oil . We tried that . We also cursed, yelled and screamed, but that didn't help . So we then had to figure out a way to get it apart, without damaging either the aluminium gear, or the hubcap shell....

Please click HERE to see what we figured out !

Please click HERE to go back to the Tech List !