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Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:12 pm

I have a 74 standard beetle and i want to put five spoke wheels on it but it has a four lug pattern. what do i need to do to convert it to 5 lug and how much would it cost?

Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:47 pm

You would have to get a either a 5-lug adaptor, or a brake disc brake conversion kit with the wide 5 pattern. The latter would be the better option. Any online part source (Aircooled.Net, CB, etc.) will have them.

Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:33 pm

could also use 67 drumes on the front and 67's on the rear but you would need a spacer.
or you could just get rear thing drums.
there is a whole lot of threads on this,when i did this i used the search on this topic and read up on it and went with what i wanted.
if you have the cash i would do like carrera said and get the front disk kit then get the rear thing drums.

Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:45 pm

yea ive got so much other stuff to buy im kinda on a budget. could i use thing front and rear drums without having to get a spacer?

Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:39 pm

I have a '72 Super with 4-lug wheels, and I bought the adapters because I wanted 5-spoke mags. I think they look better than the 8-spokes. The only problem I had was that the lugs you insert into the adapters were a little long for the front drums, and I tightened them down so much that they caused the brakes to bind a little. I had the lugs ground off a bit, and it drives like a dream (of course, I also had the front end rebuilt and the wheels carefully balanced)!

Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:25 pm

When I bought my most recent bug, my dad called and reminded me that he still had the adapters for our bug (1963) when I was a kid in the garage - we used to run 4 lug wheels with horrible offset and big tires - it was cool back then 8) . I had to let him know that my new bug had 4 lugs and I really would like the large 5 pattern we had cause those 5 spokes are really cool now. Problem with the adapters is they affect the offset of the wheels and they are hard to get to seat correctly, so if you do drop the front or rear you then have 1/2 inch or more to deal with and they can be scary.

Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:57 am

twmcbrid wrote: yea ive got so much other stuff to buy im kinda on a budget. could i use thing front and rear drums without having to get a spacer?
just the rear would need a spacer
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=1385
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=455
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=445
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=459
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=420
or for the rear,thing drums.no spacer

http://www2.cip1.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1210
though here they are out of stock but you get the idea.
when you use the thing drums its a straight swap.
when you use the rear 67 drums,you need a spacer and the brake shoes are not the same width so you would need the 67 rear shoes.
on the front, its the same size shoe but the inner bearings are not the same size.
it will cost around 200 bucks to do this,more if you use the thing drums.
wheel adapters are not that safe to use.
i have read threads on these and that is why i changed my drums out.
in other words,if you are going to do it,do it right the first time.