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 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 !