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capitolatim Samba Member
Joined: October 31, 2013 Posts: 38 Location: Capitola, California
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 3:08 pm Post subject: Ghia on Centerline knockofs with 185/60 |
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I tried Rivieras with 190/60's, no go . In the processing of rolling the fenders I dinged the paint. I was looking at narrow front end and standard spindles. My Ghia buds said get a wheels with 4 1/2 backspace and a smaller tires. They were right.
Tried to find p7's , TireRack has some on closeout, but I had to deal with my local tire shop to get them to take the 190's back.
I found the "Centerlines" on Craigslist, about a mile from home in our little village, meant to be I guess. Also lucked into the proper lug set from EMPI at the latest remaining VW shop in Santa Cruz, Foks Cafe, good guys.
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Quintus Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2010 Posts: 173 Location: the Netherlands
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 12:25 am Post subject: |
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My lowlight;
Dropped spindles in the front with a 155/60 R15 tyre in the front. _________________ 2005 VW Lupo
1970 Pontiac GTO
2008 VW Golf R32
1959 Karmann Ghia 'Low Nose' |
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motorhead364 Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2008 Posts: 715 Location: Amarillo Texas
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 6:23 am Post subject: |
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Diggin the red lines. Cool car man. _________________ 63 ghia coupe |
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Quintus Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2010 Posts: 173 Location: the Netherlands
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 2:22 am Post subject: |
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motorhead364 wrote: |
Diggin the red lines. Cool car man. |
Thanks! _________________ 2005 VW Lupo
1970 Pontiac GTO
2008 VW Golf R32
1959 Karmann Ghia 'Low Nose' |
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63 GhiaLover Samba Member
Joined: March 06, 2015 Posts: 45 Location: Campinas/SP -- Brazil
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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Hi guys,
My plans for the car are far from completion but I thought it was time to post some recent pics. It took so long to get the wheels painted because I ended up re-spraying front- and rear-end of the car
But here they are, wrapped in Kuhmo's (155/60 up front and 205/60 out rear) with portawalls. Car is running just great and I decided I won't lower it any further
Took the opportunity at the body shop to take bumpers out for improvements and new chrome. They should come back in car soon, yet without overriders and bars for a cleaner look.
For those interested: I found out the color of my car is not ruby red (L456) as I suspected. It is actually royal red (color code?), a color used by VW in the 80s -- maybe when the car got its first (or last, hard to tell) paint bath... The white seen on the wheels is pearl white (L87), but I got it slightly modified so as to make it less yellowish as I didn't like the way plain pearl white looked on my wheels.
Cheers,
JP |
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bluedot Samba Member
Joined: April 25, 2013 Posts: 439
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 7:48 pm Post subject: 17" love? |
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Yo. I gotz the fooshes and the wide whites for the sunny days - but I'm still jonesing for some 17" love.
i tried the speedmasters - but they didn't fit. Is there anyone in Samba land who has a 17" BRM that can share some measurements with me?
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Bloku Expert Noob
Joined: April 09, 2013 Posts: 559 Location: Tulsa/Jenks Oklahoma
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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I got some empi sprint stars mounted up on my 71. I am running drop spindles on a 175/55 tire up front and stock out back with a 185/65 tire on 5 inch rims. It is the one major thing I have done, other than the spindles and the floor pan, in my 4 years of ownership of my ghia
_________________ 1971 Karmann Ghia
1975 Porsche 914
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1975 BMW 2002
1976 BMW 2002 (Bored and Stroked w/ 5-Speed)
1981 BMW E21
1986 Toyota 4Runner (Dead engine and trans)
1989 Toyota 4x4 PU
1994 BMW E36 (Daily)
Last edited by Bloku on Mon Jul 27, 2015 8:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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OLD VW NUT Samba Member
Joined: February 23, 2011 Posts: 2776 Location: High Desert of Washington 98823
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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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OK! I'm getting ready to pull my stock wheels off my 71 Ghia and have new tires put on. The trouble I'm having is the tire size I have available to me locally is either 175/65R15 or 185/65R15. I'd like to get the slightly taller 185's but there seems to be no diffinitive answer on the most important question when we use non-stock tire sizes: Will the 185 maybe possibly rub?
I want to maintain as much of the stock height ride as possible for the AC gear packed in under the car. I'd hate to damage it - and I have an add on sump - and lowering a Ghia isn't my style.
I'm also trying to decide on whether I should have the wheels powder coat finished in either the chrome look or the same color as the car - which is Toreador Red. Any suggestions? Anyone have the chrome powder coat done on anything on your car? At any rate which ever color I go with I'll be putting back on some old style EMPI hubcaps. I love the look of them. They seem to be well made and fit on tightly. They hold some very flimsy polished aluminum wheel covers very well but I dislike the covers. I do like the looks of stock chrome wheels but everyone thinks theirs are made of gold. I'm leaning towards getting a paint match for red on the wheels. I'll find out tomorrow when I visit the powder coating shop.
Here's a shot of the car after the bright red mellowed some:
_________________ 71 Ghia Coupe - stock body - no rust! Powered by a 2110 W/Dual HPMX 44's - Rancho Pro Street Transaxle - A/C by Gilmore
Other car - 2013 VW Golf TDI |
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FRNKNSTNGHIA Samba Member
Joined: March 05, 2010 Posts: 411 Location: Kissimmee, FL
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:30 am Post subject: |
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OLD VW NUT... If you are keeping the car stock height I don't see you having issues with rubbing. But I would run the 175s up front and the 185s out back if it were me.
Although I have 185/65s on 15x6 at all four corners. Hopefully the body will slide over them with just enough space. Otherwise I'm swapping the fronts for 175/65s. |
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OLD VW NUT Samba Member
Joined: February 23, 2011 Posts: 2776 Location: High Desert of Washington 98823
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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I'm going with all one size - mixing and matching makes no sense if you're like me and want the free lifetime balance and tire rotation. The 175/65R15 will add 6% rotation per mile which also increases the rpms 6% - no big deal for me since I would rarely get on a freeway - speeds around here are 45-60mph - actual speed in a 60 zone might be 62-65. _________________ 71 Ghia Coupe - stock body - no rust! Powered by a 2110 W/Dual HPMX 44's - Rancho Pro Street Transaxle - A/C by Gilmore
Other car - 2013 VW Golf TDI |
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OLD VW NUT Samba Member
Joined: February 23, 2011 Posts: 2776 Location: High Desert of Washington 98823
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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I made up my mind - and went in a slightly different direction than I had anticipated. Instead of having my wheels painted I bought 4 of these in 15x4.5":
And I'm getting 4 of these when the wheels get here - in 175/65R15:
Those are Bridgestone Ecopia EP422.
There should be zero problems with rubbing since the wheels are the stock size 4.5" wheel with original offset and tires are only .6" wider than stock and are slightly smaller in diameter.
I found this site useful for comparing tire sizes against each other:
http://tire-size-conversion.com/tire-size-calculator/ _________________ 71 Ghia Coupe - stock body - no rust! Powered by a 2110 W/Dual HPMX 44's - Rancho Pro Street Transaxle - A/C by Gilmore
Other car - 2013 VW Golf TDI |
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dcat917 Samba Member
Joined: April 13, 2014 Posts: 185 Location: Greenville, SC
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Brassneck Samba Member
Joined: November 17, 2012 Posts: 420 Location: Seattle
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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:04 pm Post subject: Re: Coil over vs torsion bar adjustment |
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dcat917 wrote: |
I'm not happy with the stance of my car. It sags on the rear driver side and I want it higher. My first question is for the rear, should I use coil overs to adjust or get the rear torsion bar adjusted?
I want the front higher as well. The PO put 2" lowered spindles on and it scrapes the ground. Would coil overs allow me another 1-2" of ride height on the front?
My Samba research came up with this for a possible coil over solution:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-4075
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I don't want to change rims or tires as a solution |
No need to coil overs...way too stiff and likely overkill. For the front, just get the stock spindles, that will get your height back up...and for the rear, get new bushings and you'll likely get your rear balanced left/right. |
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TwinkyZulu Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2011 Posts: 129 Location: Texas
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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155/60 up front 165/80 in back, stock rims, lowered with stock beam and dropped spindles up front, I'm not sure how much in back. No rubbing issues at all.
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rickpereira Samba Member
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 330 Location: Sydney, AUstralia
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:54 am Post subject: |
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before 15x5.5 with 195/60r15 rear and 165/60r15 fronts, now with 17x7 with 195/40r17 and 205/45r17
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bhartwell59 Samba Member
Joined: December 28, 2014 Posts: 788 Location: dallas, tx
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:38 am Post subject: |
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those 17's look great. remind me of concept car drawings _________________ '74 Zambezi green Ghia vert, autostick, 101k
'87 Jeep Wrangler, 4.2, 330k |
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didget69 Samba Member
Joined: July 22, 2004 Posts: 4925 Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 9:02 am Post subject: Re: Coil over vs torsion bar adjustment |
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Brassneck wrote: |
dcat917 wrote: |
I'm not happy with the stance of my car. It sags on the rear driver side and I want it higher. My first question is for the rear, should I use coil overs to adjust or get the rear torsion bar adjusted?
I want the front higher as well. The PO put 2" lowered spindles on and it scrapes the ground. Would coil overs allow me another 1-2" of ride height on the front?
My Samba research came up with this for a possible coil over solution:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-4075
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I don't want to change rims or tires as a solution |
No need to coil overs...way too stiff and likely overkill. For the front, just get the stock spindles, that will get your height back up...and for the rear, get new bushings and you'll likely get your rear balanced left/right. |
Adjust the old rear torsion bars, or replace them with new bars & adjust accordingly. Do not use any coil-overs on the front with stock beam; beam was not designed for them. And don't waste time/money on the cheap chrome spring 'coil-overs'...
bnc _________________ I never found the need to impress people with any mechanic certifications, trophies or track wins... unless it was for Mom to post on the refrigerator door. |
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motorhead364 Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2008 Posts: 715 Location: Amarillo Texas
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Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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On my 63. I'm two clicks down in the back and 2 inch narrow adjustable beam up front. Can I run 5.5 inch wheels with 3.75 back spacing all the way around? What tire size would work?
Looking at these
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C32%2DE252C
Thanks _________________ 63 ghia coupe |
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c21darrel Samba Member
Joined: January 22, 2009 Posts: 8206 Location: San Dimas
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motorhead364 Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2008 Posts: 715 Location: Amarillo Texas
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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That's about what I measured today. I have tons of room with the stockers on. I think 5.5 wide will be good to go. Not sure if I want to run big and littles or not. Maybe go the same size on all four. Maybe. 165/50's ish. _________________ 63 ghia coupe |
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