Wheels

Does anyone know if 6 inch rims will fit a CMC Speedster. I think the normal is 5.5. Anyone have any experiance?
Thanks

M.A.
I have 16 x 6 Fuchs under mine with 205/50/16 front tires & 205/55/16 rears.
IRS Pan; disc brakes in front, Drums in Rear.
No Monkey Business with rotors or Drums, just careful attention to body/pan/suspension alignment when pan and body married.

Greg B

Greg,

Very NICE. Love the Fuchs, my favorite wheel since I had "fuchs" hubcaps on my '67 BUG back in the early '70's.

On the CMC classic (non flared) and 5.5" Mangels chrome 15" rims and standard 165/80x15 tires, you have less than 1/2" of clearance at the back (top of wheels). One side in fact is closer to 1/4." I think it really depends on the chosen wheel's offset, whether car is lowered in rear and how much, and the size tire selected. Fortunately, with the IRS, the wheels go up and down at good angle or they would rub.

Greg - NICE set-up on the wheels! Fuchs RULE!

I have 6" 356 Biven's rims from West Coast Autohaus. He makes them for drum and disc cars with either the wide 5 pattern (5x205mm) or the newer 911 pattern (5x130mm). On an Intermeccanica a 6" wheel will fit in the wheel wells. There is one exception... using CBs AL Wide 5s requires the offset be modified for the wheels to fit the wells and a slight mod to the inner front wells is needed. The offset was done by Autohaus when they cut the wheels. A Steel wheel requires the offset be done by a service such as Stockton Wheels.

IMs with CIP discs fit a 6" wheel with no mods.

Greg, the Fuchs look great! I love them on Dale's car too. That's one of the limitations on having wide 5s in retrospect; the Fuchs are 5x130s and so they won't fit on a 5x205.

And remember that not all 6" fuchs have the same offset. If you find a pair of deep offset 6" fuchs you just need to let me have them. I'll swap you out straight across for the regular ones and even pick up the shipping 'cause I'm so nice. ;-)

Oh - also. If you have 6" fuchs and ONLY 6" fuchs, you can have a company called "Lindsey" make 17" wheels out of them. They cut the center out and do a bolt-up to a two piece rim for a 3 piece Fuchs based wheel in a diameter NEVER made by the factory. They are extremely light and strong. Many, many performance tires for 17" wheels.

angela

OK - just so you guys know I'm not nutz (perhaps too late for that...) here are the Lindsey wheels.

There are two options - 2 piece, your center welded to their outer or 3pc, your center bolted to their outer. Any offset. This is no hack job. These wheels are PHENOMENAL!
angela

Also:
When prepping the body, I used a router to trim the inside lip of the wheel wells to 5/16 in.
Tops of rear wheel well inside lips trimmed to 1/4 in. for tire clearance.
Plus,
Trimming the inside wheel wells and sanding corner radius on wheel well edges gives it makes look "finished".

Greg

Angela, those are beautiful wheels. I saw a set (of Lindsey 17s I believe) on a 911 in Excellence that had been media blasted for a low sheen and a more aggressive street/track appearance.

Greg, that's interesting. IMO the lip treatment adds another level of 'the look' to a replica.

Thanks for all the info, I should have been more detailed. Mine is a CMC wide body with disk brakes front and rear. And yes the left rear tire has less clearance then the right.
Tires are
rear 225/50/15
Front 205/50/15
I guess I can extrapolate by measuring the depth from the rim to the mounting plate and comparing the two.
I'm looking into a nifty set of alloy wheels from a late 60's bug.
Thanks

Here's an excellent site on VW wheels. I believe they have photos of just about every after market wheel made for VWs. It's a great site for other info too, including 356s, kit cars, etc.

Note the pic at mid page with wheels. Click it. The next page has Sub-Categories on 4 bolt, 5 bolt, 5 bolt Porsche wheels, etc.

http://www.runtrod.com/gallery/main.php

Nick does a GREAT service to everyone with his site. He also has full galleries of body styles and alterations, along with scans of old tech articles like step-by-steo top chops and such.

Surf around, it's an evenings entertainment for sure!

MA, I had a set of 7" custom built chrome wide-5 mangels on the back of my last CMC speedster. It was a non-flaired body car. I took a stock set of 5 and 1/2" mangels and had a custom wheel builder add a inch and a half to the back side. That way it did'nt effect the fender lip clearence. And you can put a wider tire on the back.....and it'll stick to the road like glue. Looks pretty mean too! Take a look at the pics..You'll have to experiment with tire sizes to fit your car...This car had a IRS transaxle and a 185/65/15 was as wide as could be fitted. The 7" rim ...stretced the tire out and made it look much bigger. I believe with a swing axle transaxle you could possibly go as wide as a 195/60/15 or even a 205 50 or 55/ 15....good luck! Oh also...this was with drum brakes in back...actually the thin 66 vw drums

What a great set of Fuchs. Ive got a set of polished 7 and 8 in 911 Fuchs in transit to IM. The insets will be color coordinated to car color, with polished, enameled center crests. Should be able to run 205/225 16. I know I went the right way. Marcos De Aquila"s speedster 6 IM, had 3 piece Fuchs, which were modified to 17in. Chromed out, they looked beautiful in person.

Michael,

If you don't mind could you tell me approximately what it cost to have your mangels widened. Are there any tips or advice you have I'm looking to have a set made myself. Lastly did you have it done locally or purchase them online?

Thanks

Peter, Check out the post I had a while back about info and cost on doing the wheel surgury.....Go to the search section....type in widen wheels and look at the wide wide 5 post by me....best deal I found. You send them your wheels and they fix em up like you want them. Mike

Just now had the chance to read this string and thought I would attach a couple of recent sightings.

The red cars wheels are supposidly from a 944 spare. Anyone know the origin? I think they're unique.

The green car is from Parts Obsolete in Oregon.

Michael

Love the Emory car, Michael!

Take care, hope all is well.

Jim

I would bet the Emory car is using a Mini Lite or PanaSport rim. In any case they look pretty sharp.

It's such a shame that the four lug Empi eight spoke wheels are so common in everyone's eyes. In their own way, they look so much like the way cool Mini Lites and PanaSports, but usually only bring around $100, for a set of four, used.

They could be such a cool alternative for a competition themed car, but everyone shuns 'em, maybe because all of the cheapo VW Bugs have them.

Too bad, I think that they look tough. Although . . . I have a set and only use them to roll the car around until I get the "good" wheels mounted with new tires.

Wierd . . .

I agree, TC. I think they really look nice on a Speedster.

TC
Try painting the (whole)Empi wheel. Silver wheel paint like the minilites would give them a different look.
Maybe if you have access to a lathe, you could radius the corners a little. That would disguise them
I always liked the 8 spoke vw wheels. I had a set on a bug for about 10 years.

Greg

I like the look too so this comment is just for informational purposes.

I "autocrossed" my '73 911 at the 1980 Porsche Parade in Portland, OR. The PCA used Portland International Raceway for their course and added a couple of chicanes (sp) on the straight to keep the speeds down to controllable levels.

One of the 356's, I think an open car was running wheels that looked very much like the empi 8 spoke. He had those wheels shod with a tire recapped with a racing compound rubber as was popular with autocrossers at that time. He made his practice lap and was on his timed lap when the rear axle pushed thru the spokes and left the barrel of the wheel and the tire against the inner fender well and the jagged wheel hub, looking like a saw blade on the outside.

I don't remember if he had a wide-5 variation or if the car had "C" brakes or if he was using adapters.

The visual of the broken wheel captured by the hub is still clear in my mind.

For what it's worth....

What class was the 356 running in?

Adapters would NEVER pass tech at any autocross, and a wheel change to aftermarket alloys would have bumped him up into a class where he'd never be competitive. PCA uses SCCA tech specs at their events. Racing the car would be both futile and un-fun to say the very least. I doubt that the car would have been allowed on the course.

Are you SURE that you didn't dream this, or possibly heard it as a cautionary tale at one time?

Maybe saw something on television, or . . .

yeah, you got me. I was making it all up so everyone with this style of wheel would sell cheap and I could corner the market.

PCA Parade, 1980 Portland, OR.

I participated in several parade autocrosses between 1978-1984 and don't recall any real tech inspection. The autocrosses at parade had cars of all flavors. There were prepared race cars and some of the concours entrants that were going for the "overall" (concours, ralley, autocross) trophy. With that being the case all that was required for some of the cars was a helmet for the driver, seat belts, and a quick brake check that showed your car could stop. Street class cars, such as the car with the broken wheel, even had to carry a spare tire mounted on a spare wheel.

Present day parades may be alot different.

Picture copied from a Pelican thread about "critical failures".

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=29402343f0c103b2bd439417ef596540&threadid=320074&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

Fuchs from a track car that probably undergoes pretty rigorous "tech".

I can't tell if it is a genuine Fuch wheel or not but if it is genuine it probably took quite a lot of force to "center" it like this. The edges of the "petals" look a little too square but without seeing the wheel as a single piece it is to speculative.

There is some pretty amazing carnage on the above link. An interesting photo on the value of an oil screen on the first page of the thread too.

Obviously haven't heard of the miraculous healing properties of JB Weld . . .

Speaking of wheels, my buddy has four really sweet wide five chromed wheels for sale, if anyone is looking let me know and I'll forward your email to him. I think that he's looking for a couple of hundred for the set, but he's had them a while now.

Worth a shot, he HAS been known to strike a bargain.