I am thinking of getting standard beetle early 5 stud wheels made into 17 x 5.5 and running 205 45 17 tyres.
Anyone here have this combo.
is there 16" factoty rims rims that would be good to modify without the need for a large stepper rim?

VW did make a 16" steel rims for some splitties from memory.
for 17" steelies contact Rocket industries cause I think that they are selling them in various styles.
Cheers
D

Beetles made prior to October 1952 had 16" wheels, but VW changed to 15" when the gearbox was redesigned for syncromesh on 2-3-4 and the ratios were changed. However VWs were not even sold in Australia until 1954, so you have zero chance of finding any of those ancient 16" wheels here.

Why would you want to do this? A 205 45 17 tyre would have a diameter of 616 mm, a circumference of 1936 mm and would turn 532 times per kilometre. Compare with a stock 165 75 15 tyre - 628 mm diameter, 1974 mm circumference and 522 rotations per km. You are actually reducing the car's gearing, raising the rpm slightly at all speeds. See http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp 

I'm not sure how those tyres would go on a swing-axle rear end, either.

17 inch standard steelies... that would look cool!

Here is another tyre calculator - it even has diagrams!

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html 

http://www.wheelsmaster.com/rt_specs.jsp

yeah...go for it...ignore the nay-sayers.... not just cool...it would be Uber Kuhl...