4-bolt to 5-bolt wheels

I ran across some used adapters that would allow the mounting of 5-bolt wheels to the existing 4-bolt wheels, front and rear. I have not been able to find the new counterparts in any of the catalogs. The owner also had some chromed (used, and the chrome was scratched up) five-bolt wheels that would attach to the adapters he also had. I don't care for chromed wheels and wonder if the 5-bolt wheels are offered by anyone in the aluminum-painted verson. The wheels are offered in several catalogs, but in chrome only. Any ideas?

I bought Mangles wide 5 rims, new, in black paint rather than chrome about 6 months ago from a local dealer (ASK Houston TX) I have seen them in at least one ad for one of the California VW companies also, but I don't remember which. In my case I had both chrome as well as the black rims sandblasted and then powercoated in silver with a clearcoat. Cost more to have the powdercoat than it did to buy the rims by the way....rims were $50 and the powder coat was $62.50....but, its only money....

Jim: Do the wide five rims come in only one size (depth) only; if so, with an adaptor, would the wheels be pushed out too far and, if so, would there be any bad results that would ensue, such as wheel-rub or negative camber? I presently have the original 4-bolt with 206/60/15 rear and 185/65/15 front tires....both were original on the 2002 Beck Spyder.

Well, I might just be plum out of luck. I just read on the Spyderclub site that the adaptors interfere with the Ghia calipers on the front wheels. I assume that the Becks come with Ghias. Anybody have any different info?

Barry,

The wide 5 rims from mangles come in 4.5" and 5.5" widths. I can't answer your question regarding adapters interference with Ghia calipers.....I have no experience on that point. I did convert my Spyder from 4 lug to 5 lug using SoCal wide 5 disks both front and rear.....these are cheaper than some other options and do not increase the width of the track.....on my car I already have rubbing on the outside of the tire on the drivers side.....couldn't stand any more width....

Jim

Thanks, Jim. Do you have a website for SoCal? I have looked in Google, Yahoo, Shops, Makers---you name it--- and struck out. SoCal on Yahoo gets me "Social."
Barry

try http://www.socalautoparts.com/

Thanks, Jim. Also, I just found the ad in Hot VWs. Sunday morning...take my brain tissue a while to get in gear.

Barry,
Since you are leafing through Hot VW, notice that the CP1 ad has a price for painted wheels.

However, since I presume your motive for switching from 4-bolt to wide-5 is purely for the sake of "looks" -- there are two distinct different "looks" for the wide-5.

One is the "D" oval slot (shaped kinda like Daytona track). This is the Porsche style you want, and is the standard chrome Mangles wheel most everyone with wide-5s has.

The other is a "true" oval shaped slot (kinda like the oval on your 4-bolts). This is a VW pattern that was used for only a couple of years in late 60s. You probably don't want this pattern, or you will have the VW "look" again.

And, here is another heads up: When I switched from 4-bolt to wide-5 wheels, there was a big offset difference between the two styles. This forced me to have the new wide-5 wheels "cut and pushed" to match the offset of the original 4-bolts.

Jim, maybe you didn't have the offset problem. Is there a trick I didn't know -- and Barry should?

Mark

Mark and Barry,

I avoided offset problems by using the "0" offset wide 5 disk brake kits from Socal. I also changed the rear axles from "long" to short. I didn't have to change the rear axles, I just didn't like the way the car looked with the tires on the long axles. The front rims are 4.5" width and the rears are 5.5" width. Both are atandard Mangels offsets, standard rims.....no changes...

there are a herd of photos at http://www.pbase.com/tmpusfugit/jims_550_photos&page=all You can see a number of transitions but I think the rims are all as described above and all are with the short axles save 1 or 2.

Jim

Exactly the "look" I would like to have. I definitely don't care for the 4-bolt chromies. Jim...what was the approximate cost for the short axle conversion, the front disc changes, rear drums and any other parts involved. And, can the conversion be done by a novice mechanic like me without special tools? I got from somewhere else that the conversion was in the vicinity of around $3,000.

Also, did you say that the track that you ended up with was about the same as that of the original wheels; if so, I imagine that there would be no particular caster/camber readjustments?

Jim: BTW, VERY nice car! Thanks for the photos.

Barry,

the cost to convert from long axles to short was about $300 as I ended up buying everything from one of the transmission companies. I suspect the cost of the parts from a fellow VW person could be a lot less. Ususally there are people wanting to go from short to long, not the long to short direction. By the way, converting the axles is a bunch of work and not necessarily easy. If you decide to do it we should talk first, might save you a few mistakes that I made.

The cost of the front and rear disk brake kits from SoCal was just over $1000. Installation was no big deal other than I had to make an adaptor for the emergency brake cables (yours may be different). Installation time was no more than a few hours. The biggest hassle was changing out the master cylinder (part of the kit) and getting the pushrod to master cyl adjusted properly....

The cost to change out the rims and tires was as follow:
rims $50 each = $200
powdercoat rims silver, $62.50 each = $250
tires, Yokohomas, mount and spin balance (weights on inside only) $320

I did all the work myself, mostly just standard tools needed, other than the clip rings on the axles in the Super Diff. You could save perhaps $300 by using Type 3 drums on the back of the car, I went with 4 wheel disks myself, I was never happy with the stopping with drums on the back.

Jim