Hubcaps

[MikeL43]

I recently bought a dog dish type hubcap (with a separate trim ring) for my 250 SL and have since noted that a lot of the photos of 250SLs that I see have the full wheel cover type hubcap.  I was wondering which type of hubcap was original to the 250 SL as my car is a very late 250 (VIN ends in 5167) and is titled as a 1968.  I bought my car from the estate of the original owner and think the dog dish type hubcaps are original to the car but was just wondering.

[Jordan]

Mike, your car would have had the one piece hub cap, like you see on the 280SL.  The change from two piece to one piece took place about halfway through the 250SL run.  The early 250SLs has the two piece and the later had the one piece.  You can find it all here https://www.sl113.org/wiki/WheelsTires/Hubcap.

[mbzse]

.../...The change from two piece to one piece took place about halfway through the 250SL run.../...

Sorry, this is not so. Good thing you noted this Jordan, it is now corrected in the wiki.
The one-piece hubcap was introduced in January 1968; this was in conjunction with the "/8" introduction and valid for the hubcaps of the new Mercedes W114/115 class as well as all the other Mercedes cars. See note attached (black)
In fact, the first few 280SL produced in December 1967 retained the two-piece hub caps.

[ejboyd5]

Perhaps this paragraph could be rewritten as well to make it clearer to those not yet "in the know:"

Wheel centres are painted the same as the body of the car. On a W113 (or if a coupé or sedan that has two colours/shades) the colour number is marked "UT" on the data card. The outside centres of the hub caps (around the embossed star) is painted the same colour as the W113 H/T (or roof on a coupé or sedan that has two colours/shades) and the shade (colour number) is marked "OT" on the data card. If the W113 car has H/T colour is same as body colour (like on my 250SL) the colour marking in the data card (and on the little plate near the hood catch in the engine compartment) is repeated twice "568/568". If your car has black H/T (colour No 040) the hub cap centres are supposed to be black 040 too (they were at delivery ex factory).

[MikeL43]

Thanks for the enlightening information re my hubcaps.  As I noted my car is a very late production 1967 car, VIN ending in 5167, made in mid December of 1967 but not sold until 1968 and thus titled as a 1968 under the titling laws at that time.  From the information I could find there were only 28 other 250s manufactured in 1967 before the 280 was introduced. Based on the information you guys provided my hubcaps and trim rings are correct for the 1967 model as the change to the full wheel covers did not occur until 1968.  Thanks again, this forum is a great resource.