was looking at lowering my squareback, but then noticed that the drivers side rear will foul the wheel arch, where as the near side has about an inch of clearance. The wheel are banded steels and its the first time I have ever had them on a car. Is it common for them to be so different?
A quick look, looked like one may have a bigger offest than the other, so are they just shonky wheels?
Mind you the chap I bought the car off didnt even realise they were wider then standard....
Is there a check that I can do to make sure the back of the car is straight?
They dont have any obvious toe in, and the wheels seem straight

swap them and see if the offset changes to the other side.

Smart Cookie... I would have bought a new set of rims, preferably Flat Four Fuchs copies.

Just tried to swap wheels around, using the vw jack, which wont actually jack up the car high enough to get the fecking wheel off!!
Will go and buy a proper jack and try again soon. That said has anyone got a set of whhels for sale?

what are you after i might be able to help as i have a set of globes, hotwires and possibly a set of stocks as well

anything that will fit without fouling the guards!, do any of the wheels have tyres?

oh and its a 4 stud 69

they all have tires on them at the moment, 215s on the globes and im not sure whats on the hotwires as im not sure which set i was left with after i sold 1 set but could check with the old man in a couple of days or you could ring him direct on 0265523190 during work hours. he should be coming to sydney in a couple of weekends if not im heading up there in two weeks

they are all 4 stud as well

sounds good, how much do you want?

type 3s had wider rims than beetles....

they get mixed up easily as they just look the same....

One could be a beetle rim and one a type 3 rim....

or they could be different as someone may have had them
widened differently for the front & rear of car,
and they have been mixed up.....

Lee

Type 3s had thinner rims than beetle ,

Remove the hub caps look between the bolts there should be stamping indicating the width, is you car swing axle or IRS??

Adam

the wheels say they were 4" to begin with but now measure about 7" so were tey beetle wheels?

Widest standard wheel for veedubs were 5.5 may be 6in.

Bloody hard to lower with that width wheel also depends on off set , what about the rims on the front may be u have 2 fats and 2 thins. U could remove wheel and measure offsets, u will need plank of wood and a ruler.

Ad

Post a pic of car.

would do but camera broke today! it has thinner on front, just spoken to previous owner and he has got another widened as a spare, so this could be the matching one for one of the rears, or maybe not!
Think the wheels are a bit bodgey to say the least, will try and get a second hand set of mags to keep the car rolling (and lower) and go from there.

Type 3s always had wider rims than beetles....

they had 4 1/2 J x 15 inch rims

and the tyre size was 165 x 15...

On Beetles it was 155 x 15 tyres...

and they had 4 J x 15 inch rims

Lee

about 72 73 i think it was they widend them beetle ones to 4 1/2"

my 74 has 4.5"

type 3's have different offset too.

oh yeah the reason that wheels off the car
it got a bit of a shudder happening

hmmm tyre bent much? LOL

tyre has the hugest warp in it


Joel

Unfortunatley its a IRS, Do any of you chaps live anywhere near Newtown?
And do you have a trolley jack I could come over and use to try and solve this problem once and for all?
I know its abit rude but Cant really afford to buy a trolley jack (as just boght the car, rego etc, etc) and the wheel thing is really bugging me.

Barls you have u2u.

they are also only 14" rims, did beetles come with 14's?
What are my wheels from?

14" rims where never factory
they'd be something someone made up in the 80's when 14's were cool

Joel

Ahh bugger it, Guess its how you learn!
So the wheels are still beetle centers? Or some other VW?
They still have the fitting for the VW crome Hubcaps

yeah they're just vw center hubs fitted to 14" wider rims from some mainstream car

there always easy to pick as to make a 15" vw hub fit the 14" rim they need to be cut down and the cuts are made half way through the cooling slots on 4 stud rims

if u look closely btwn the wheel studs on 4 stud rims u'll see a few markings if theyre not buried under layers of paint.
one is the size eg 4 1/2Jx15 the other is month and year of manufacture and my 74 rims also have the offset ET41 on them

hth
Joel

yeah the centers are beetle, not type 3.
Its just one of the things I really should have picked up on when I first looked at the car. Like I said its just a big learning curve jumping from Mini's to aircooled VW's!