Larger tires for cmc replica

I recently purchased a partially completed cmc 356 replica. I would like to put larger tires on the car but do not know what size wheels and tires I would need. The VW is a 1968. Help would be appreciated.

Stephen Hunter
shunter@citycom.com

Stephen: The first thing for us to know is whether your car is the standard or flared version. While waiting for a reply post, you can use the search function in the forum section. Try a search for wheels and tires. There are many posts on this subject. There may be additional info. in the knowledge section.

BD

If your car is a classic and you want wider rims on the rear, Bill that posts here discovered that Beck Spyders sells 5.5 inch rims that have had their offset changed to fit inside the Spyder wheel well. Same same with Speedsters. Reasonable price, $75 each. Bill has 195 tires on his car, feels 205's will fit without rubbing.

I bought two rims from IM after talking with Henry. He offers the same 5.5 rims but they have been widened to a full seven inches, plus the offset has been changed. According to Henry you need to grind down the rubber bump stop for the rim to snug up to your hub. They aren't cheap. I believe I paid $300 for two rims, maybe a bit more with custom duties, etc. Is the extra inch and a half worth double the money?

Besure you do a search on past posts on this subject. Should be a gold mine of info.

After that if you have some questions about wheels and tires on a flared CMC let me know.

Jerome
(Message Edited 8/17/2003 9:05:51 PM)

The cmc 356 is the standard model.

Stephen Hunter

Hey all! Just for the record, I have a flared fender "Californian" from CMC and took an interesting wheel/tire route. I have 4-stud 1969 VW hubs front and rear (CB Performance disk conversion on the front) and added a set of So-Cal Import adapters to go from the VW 4-stud to Porsche 5-stud (130mm hole radius, I think). These are cast aluminum rings, about 1 1/8" thick, with holes for the original VW wheel bolts, and studs inserted for the Porsche wheels. One of the VW bolts is replaced with a "special" longer stud which has a flared nut welded on about half way down and can then hold on both the adapter and the Porsche wheel. I then mounted a set of original Fuchs 5-spoke wheels from a 1989 Porsche 911 (6-inch wide fronts, 7-inch wide rears) with 205/55/16's on the front and 225/55/16's on the rear. They look super, stick like glue and fit the wheel wells just about perfectly. Hope this helps! gordon

Gordon,
I'm on the same path that you took to fill those fenders. Fuch's 6" & 7" and spacer/adapters or getting the CB kit pre-drilled for porsche 5.

My plan is to go with a silver finish and paint out the Fuch's to match and polish the spokes.

Could you post some pics of your result to your member file or email me a few?

I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Brian.

Be very careful with wheel adapters, they sometimes fatigue-crack and break. Probably a good idea to take them off and check for cracks once a year, especially if they're not made of steel.

I agree with the last post. I had a set of those spacers. They are very easy to cross thread since the metal is so soft. I junked them and had my rotors drilled with the Porcshe pattern. Works great.

I agree that the spacers I used are somewhat soft.......they were inexpensive at a time when I was in a cash-flow bind (read that, out of work) and seemed to be OK for the time being. I have less than 1,000 easy miles on them so far, but will be checking them for cracks as I go along. It's important to get at least an inch spacing (maybe more) between the original hubs and the Fuchs rims in order to get them to fit the wheel wells correctly. It almost looks like something slightly thicker on the front might be good, too.

For some decent pictures, take a look at:

slipgate.theta.net/gnichols/

It has a couple of good shots of the rims, as well as a rear end shot - those tires are pretty wide back there!

Those shots are a year old, and the cockpit is now finished with burgundy carpeting - that against the Pearlescent White paint with the black spoke wheels looks really tough! I've also fitted the front hood better so there's no longer a gap.

Gordon

Hey, BTW........for a spare tire with those Fuchs rims, I found that the older, rear wheel drive Cadillacs (Sedan DeVille) had "SPACE SAVER", 16" spare wheel with the same bolt pattern as the Porsche 911! Got one of those (along with the mounting stud and covers) and put it all under the hood on my CMC with no further mods to the body - it fit right in! There's even space to fit a Ford Windstar jack assembly next to the battery - Neat!

Gordon

My flareside has 255/50R15 all the way around on steel rims. We machined the rear rotor bolt faces .200" to achive the needed clearance. The future plan is to go wider in the rear with custom offset rims.

Typo 225/50R15...sorry

I would only add that I have the 911 Fuchs, 16x6 up front, 16x7 rear. I did use loctite on the adapters, but have 12,000 miles on them and no problems. I also added spacers in the front widen the stance and help fill the wheel well. I run 225 50s rear, 205 50s front. Absolutely fine.

Jack (and others)!

Where did you get your spacers from? I've decided that one of mine isn't exactly hub-centric and I get a pretty strong vibration around 70 - 75 mph so I guess it's time to upgrade to something better.

What I need is an adapter to go from a 4-bolt VW to a 5-bolt Porsche pattern, and the adapter should be between 1" - 1 3/8" thick. I could go just a bit thicker on the front, maybe out to 1 1/2" up there.

Anybody have some good sources for these?

Thanks, Gordon

I got my spacers from Tweeks. They work great after the rotors are drilled for the 5 bolt Porsche pattern. Tweeks has several different sizes so you can make sure that your tires fill out the fender wells even if you have a wide body speedster like I do. I think they are a much better arrangement than the 4 bolt VW to 5 bolt Porsche adapters.

Thanks, Martin!

I had the opportunity to go with the 5-bolt pattern way back when I was putting the chassis together and for some reason decided to go with the original 4-bolt set-up - poor judgement in retrospect. Guess I'll put up with it for the rest of this season and get the hubs/drums drilled over the Winter and go the Tweeks spacer route (never was thrilled with those adapters, anyway!)

Gordon

Tweeks ? Do they have a website?
Joe S.

The Tweeks website is Tweeks.com. Do a search for "wheel spacer" and it gives information on the sizes available.

MY Vintage was a CMC leftover. The Beck 5.5 spyder rims will let you put P/185/65/15 all around. Henry at IM made me 2 custom 6 inch rims for the rear so I could run P/195/65/15s on the rear ,I have a rally irs beetle rear section so I can,t run Henry's 7 inch rims If your car has swing axles you may be able to run the 7 inch with a 205/60/15 on the rear.

So The 6 inchs are a most likely a can do ,and the becks 5.5 match on the face side offset as a front rim. I hope that helps you . Mr Hunter Csp has Spacers if needed. I did space out the front 30 mm and these spacers use the 36 mm long BENZ type stud bolts that screw into the hub.
(Message Edited 9/18/2003 3:15:14 PM)