Beetle Sport Wheels

[braidmeister]

Although I plan on many performance upgrades on my Beetle, I'm a big fan of keeping things looking as close to stock as possible. I've always thought that the wheels really make or break the lines of a car & the Beetle is no exception. My car came with EMPI-style American Eagle 8-spoke wheels - which I think look pretty good on the car. I do however, really like the look of the Beetle Sport Wheels (by Lemmertz) since I think they look great on a car with stock trim. The problem is, they came in 4.5 & 5.5" widths, with the 5.5s being hard to find - and they only came in 15" diameter. I think that a set of these would look great on my car, but I think I might undertake machining a set of 17" wheels that look like the 15s. I'm going to have to talk to WheelWorks in Burlington to see if they can take my AL centers (not going to machine the lip or rim, just the center section) and weld them up with the offset that I want. Hopefully this will all work out & I'll be left getting the factory wheel look with the ability to run a lower profile tire & a wider rim.



Here's a quick rendering of where I am so far. I 3D laser scanned my spare tire & wheel (only Sport Wheel I have off of a car) and pulled it into software, scaled it appropriately, and then married the bolt pattern from the 15" wheel to the new 17" wheel. I added 25.5" diameter tires to both wheels - Obviously the tire aspect ratio is quite different. At some point I will machine a center in the 17" size and bolt it up to the car to A) see how it looks and B) determine the offset I want. Things are just preliminary right now...so we'll see how it all goes.

-Brady

[Baha (Shawn)]

Dude, if its possible, these guys can do it. They made me 10" Rally Wheels for my El Camino (no wisecracks)

http://www.stocktonwheel.com/wheel_widening.htm

[braidmeister]

Thanks Shawn, but it looks like they only do steel wheels, not aluminum wheels. I am machining the wheel centers out of aluminum, so the rim & bead have to be AL too. If for some reason I don't make the AL centers myself, I may just have a set of the originals widened, but they'll still be 15s. 17s would really fill up the stock fenders nicely if done correctly.

-Brady

[njgt-1]

I am machining the wheel centers out of aluminum, so the rim & bead have to be AL too.

Dude,

you're a regular "Chip Foose" I'd like to see those wheels when they are done!

[Baha (Shawn)]

Ah missed that point. Facinating that you would CNC a "stock" wheel out of aluminum. as opposed to transplanting the center into a larger steel wheel

[braidmeister]

Ah missed that point. Facinating that you would CNC a "stock" wheel out of aluminum. as opposed to transplanting the center into a larger steel wheel

It won't look right if you do that. You'd have a 1" 'lip' that went all the way around the entire circumference of the center. The 17" wheel above was not just scaled up to 17". The bolt pattern was retained & the rest of the wheel expanded radially. BTW, the pic above is in 3D, not a Photoshop perversion of the original wheel. Take a look at the 2 wheels. Can you see the difference between the two with the same diameter tire?

-Brady

[braidmeister]

I'm also considering carbon fiber as a media as well. I have experience with carbon & aramid composites. I still want to render the wheels to see if I like them satin, painted argent silver or polished/chromed. I guess if I have all this technology at my disposal, I owe it to the Universe to use it...

-Brady

[Baha (Shawn)]

With great power comes great responsibility  .##