Skip to main content

Closed32 replies

Help! My rear wheels are sticking out too far... what can I do?

N nickmr
Hi! Great website!!
I'm a brand new member here. Had my car for quite a while... and finally getting ready to bold the body to the VW frame. The frames been shortened properly, has an IRS rear with the disc brake kit one it, and a set of 5.5 inch wide VW chrome rims. My Problem: The rims stick out about 1.5 inches too much, and are hitting the inside lip of the rear fenders. I've already trimmed away the inside fender lip (down to about 1/8 thick) to look more original. So, that gave me just a bit more clearance, but nowhere near enough.
Has anybody put 5.5 inch wide rims, with 195/60/15 tires, IRS rear, disc brake kit & made the rims fit on the car? I'm trying to see where 1.5 inches could be taken away, & I am stumped.
Obviously I could buy 4.5 wide inch rims, buy a new set of skinnier tires & probably solve the problem (depending on the offset of the 4.5's). But then I'd have a whole new problem up front... with the front rims sitting in way too far (in my opinion). Right now the front looks perfect to me.
I also wouldnt think the car would'nt look quite right with a set of 4.5's on the back & 5.5's up front. The profile of the tires looks nice now... not too wide not too narrow. I'd hate to change my tires to get 1/2" clearance, & end up with skinny looking tires.
I'm thinking with all you guys out there, someone must have the same set up as me, & made it work??? I hope. ;o) Thanks much for your help. ;o)
~Nick~
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

N nickmr
Hi! Great website!!
I'm a brand new member here. Had my car for quite a while... and finally getting ready to bold the body to the VW frame. The frames been shortened properly, has an IRS rear with the disc brake kit one it, and a set of 5.5 inch wide VW chrome rims. My Problem: The rims stick out about 1.5 inches too much, and are hitting the inside lip of the rear fenders. I've already trimmed away the inside fender lip (down to about 1/8 thick) to look more original. So, that gave me just a bit more clearance, but nowhere near enough.
Has anybody put 5.5 inch wide rims, with 195/60/15 tires, IRS rear, disc brake kit & made the rims fit on the car? I'm trying to see where 1.5 inches could be taken away, & I am stumped.
Obviously I could buy 4.5 wide inch rims, buy a new set of skinnier tires & probably solve the problem (depending on the offset of the 4.5's). But then I'd have a whole new problem up front... with the front rims sitting in way too far (in my opinion). Right now the front looks perfect to me.
I also wouldnt think the car would'nt look quite right with a set of 4.5's on the back & 5.5's up front. The profile of the tires looks nice now... not too wide not too narrow. I'd hate to change my tires to get 1/2" clearance, & end up with skinny looking tires.
I'm thinking with all you guys out there, someone must have the same set up as me, & made it work??? I hope. ;o) Thanks much for your help. ;o)
~Nick~
FM Former Member
Terry, those Pedrinis look wonderful! They really set off the car like they belong under there. They have WAY more vintage in them than I ever would have thought having seen them on some many 914's.

Great Choice ! ! !

Anyone got any for sale? I didn't know that I wanted a set until just now . . .

"We covet what we see."
FM Former Member
"spyder wheels" have more of a negative offset and will provide more clearence.
Stockton wheels in CA will rework your mangles to provide more clearence.
See what you can do about a group buy--I'm in need too.
There is a vw parts company in Germany that sells the (painted) already done(but I can't remember which one and don't read German)
N nickmr
Here's a few photos of what I'm lookin' at... in case this might help.
So far, it's looking like maybe the best thing to do is get the Spyder rear wheels with the better offset. ??
You guys are great! Thanks for all the help so far. I cant wait to get the rear rims figured out. Then I can finally bolt the body down, fine tune the door gaps etc... & paint this puppy. You would not believe how long I have owned this car. hehe I see light at the end of the tunnel!!
Hmm.... I dont see a way to load photos. I click on "File1: File2: File3: and a checkmark appears, but then goes away. I have an iMac, think there might be a problem? Never had a problem before with other loading of photos. Also, I dont see where to add new files... says click "Files" menu above and "add a file" to my folder. I dont see "Files" about to click on...??? Maybe I'm in too much of a rush....
oldyeleroldyeler
This is the same problem i had in the begining .

I asked Henry at IM to make me 2 6 inch rims for the rear out of Beck 550 rims . and then bought 3 more 5.5 becks for the front and the trunk spare. 185 65s front and 195 65s rear it worked and i sold the other rims fine But heck they came with the kit.

But te Best thing you can do is to up grade the trailng arms to the 3 inch narrower custom type Cb-P has um. This would solve the intire problem. and give you plenty of room. even enough for a 7 inch rim and a 205 the bad new you have to have axles made.

I stil need more room if i want to run a taller tire, to tweek the final drive
Stan GalatStan Galat
OK, I'm seeing your problem right away. Those are the really trick, CB "zero-offset" wide five discs that really add about 1" of rear track. I've got them too. They are fabulous, except that they necessitate the use of recentered Mangles- either by you, or by a Spyder builder, or Intermeccanica, or Stockton wheels in Stockton, CA. Other options include custom Bivens wheels (at about $600 per), or perhaps something else I'm not aware of.

Or.... you could run 185s on 4.5" rims. Good luck.
Speedster MikeSpeedster Mike
Nick, Here's what I did. I sent my 5.5 wide, wide 5 mangle wheels out to a wheel builder and had him add 1 1/2"s to the back side of the wheels for a total of 7" wide wheels in back. This set up with a 185/65/15 tire fit perfect with little over a 1/4" of space left between the tire and fender. Depending on the manufacture of the tire, you might still be able to use the 195s. Do a search here on widening wheels and see what comes up. Also you can go to my files and see my wheels. I too fought with tire clearence till I was blue in the face.....But this fixed the problem for me. With the wider wheels in back the speedster stuck like glue and was a blast to drive. Looked nice too because the wide wheels stretched the tires out and made it look like a much wider tire was under the car! Good luck! Michael
Stan GalatStan Galat
No problem, Nick.

I call them trick, because 1) there aren't a lot of wide 5 rear disc set-ups out there 2) the hubs are AL, rather than cast iron, so they are quite a bit lighter. It matters to one degree or another because the wheels, tires, brakes, etc. are all "unsprung" weight, and to a greater extent because they are rotating unsprung weight (wheels, tires, brake rotors, hubs) 3) They look really cool.

Good luck.
N nickmr
Hi BT, The white one is a 996 cab. that I'm turning into a '08-look
turbo body. So it'll end up looking like a custom 08 997 turbo. But with
lots of extras... RUF front bumper, Gemballa style front hood, Techart turbo rockers,
997 turbo quarters widened out 1.5 inches each side, Techart tail, 19" 997 rims,
H&R suspention, LSD Lambo doors, one off leather/alcantra 2 tone interior. Hopefully have it finished in a few months.
The black car that you can just see the front end of, is a Techart-ed 996 coupe that is 99% finished. Getting ready to start driving it soon, I hope. ;o) Too many projects... that's why I'm getting excited about getting my lil speedster painted soon.
N nickmr
I've sent them to Stockton Wheel. Having them widened
out to 7 inches (1.5" on the backside) and re-centering the
middle 3/8" to the outside (giving me just a little more room).
I hope this does the trick. If not I'll get a set of 185"s. 5 to 7
weeks waiting for them to be returned to me. ;o) Guess the
car will get painted towards the end of summer. hehe
JogyverJogyver
Nick, I had intitially a similar issue with wheel clearance. We machined off .200" off the bolting face of the brake rotor. We still had .600" thickness remaining. When I did a complete makeover of my car everything was changed including the wheel off set and bolt pattern. I still have the machined rotors if anyone is interested in them. They are 4 bolt.
N nickmr
The widening & re-centering (or whatever you want to call it) I was quoted $120 per wheel. Not too shabby I think. I was told that they probably wouldnt even need to be rechromed because the center of the rim was being moved to the outside more. If for some reason they mess up the chrome, then $195 per rim (widented etc..) with brand new chrome. I'm hoping for the $240 instead of $400. ;o) Hopefully the welding goes good.
Post Content
Remove This Ad

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×

Access to this requires a premium membership.

Supporting Member

Please help keep us running!

Supporting members have donated about $4.00 a month ($49.00 US per year) paid annually.

  • Priority support
  • Removal of inter-page (between thread) advertisements.
  • Access to Build Manuals
  • Access to Knowledge Base
  • Access to Supporting Members events.
  • Access to Leveraged Group Buying from site Merchants.

AUTO RENEW: You membership will auto-renew after 12 months. If you prefer not to auto-renew, you can cancel your premium membership at any time and it will remain in effect until the end of the 12 months. To cancel, sign in at SpeedsterOwners.com and navigate to: (Your User Name)  > Premium Membership.

PLEASE NOTE: Your credit card will receive a charge from CROWDSTACK PAY, the payment processor, not SpeedsterOwners.com.

$49.00 per 12 Months (plus tax if applicable)
×