Tires and rims combo

[Singerdude]

Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to get rid of the sprintstar wheels on my Manx clone buggy. The guy I bought it from mounted 295/50/15s in the back and 215/60/15 front on sprintstar rims! The rear tires are monstrously big for the 5 inches wheels, up front they are bulging a bit but not that much.

I'm gonna install some disc brakes in the front and have the rear drums plugged and drilled with the chevy pattern.

I want to keep the 295's, And I like the vintage white letters so I'll go with some Radial T/A 295's and 205's (the smallest they make).

I found these rims for a ridiculous price, exactly the style I've been looking for but I'm a bit at a loss concerning overall fitment.

I'm thinking about a 15x8 for the rear. They have 4 inches of backspace so if my measurement is correct the rims are on the lower limit for the tires but will clear everything on the backside and will still fit under the fender. I got a problem with the front though: these wheels only come in 10, 8 or 4.5 inches...

Could I still install 205's on 4.5 wheels? Is it just not ideal or downright dangerous? because I'm pretty sure an 8 inch wheel would stick out too much in the front. I know I could go with Ansen style American racing, they've got more sizes, but they are also more than twice the price. After shelling out some major dough for a new engine, clutch, exhaust, transaxle, brakes and tires, every penny saved will be welcome

[ammocan]

Go with 165/80 r15 for the front they about the same ride height as the other tires at 25.5" but they are 2" narrower so they would fit perfectly on your 4 .5" rims. As far as price goes walmart has some decent ones on line for $56 a piece and they do free site to Store shipping at least they did for me.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

[Q-Dog]

A smaller tire would be better for a 4 1/2" rim width, but BFG isn't making anything smaller in a white letter. This is a 205 (the smallest white letter they had this past Fall) mounted to a 6" wide wheel.

Have you looked at Cooper Tires? I noticed a few hot rodders and buggies running their white letter tires in big and little sizes.

Disk brakes are overkill on the front of a buggy and can cause lockups and loss of steering control. You may want to install a proportioning valve so you can turn down front braking power and balance front to rear braking better. Most buggy owners try to improve rear wheel braking, not front. If you do install discs on the front, find a wheel that can run a wider front tire, or maybe add some weight to the front of the car.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[andygere]

15 x 8 in the rear will be fine, though with 295s 15 x 10 may be even better. I'm running 15 x 8 and 275 60-15s on 8" rims with 4" backspacing on my 72 IRS pan. Forget about doctoring up your existing rear drums, Chevy pattern rears with studs are available and not too expensive. Skip the front disc brakes and put some of that money to the Chevy pattern rear drums. Fronts are another story, I've stayed with adapters for now and they work fine. I'm running 6" rims and 205 60-15s. I think the 4.5" rims would be way too narrow for those tires. Sell your Sprint Stars and put that cash towards Ansens for the front, and stay with the lower cost wheels for the rear.

Nice looking buggy, looks good with the Sprint Stars, but those rear tires really are bulging. Could you get the rear Sprint Stars widened?

Details on my recent wheel/tire project are here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7405717&highlight=#7405717

[Singerdude]

Thank you guys

I come from a motocross background, we always went for oversized discs up front, I guess I didn't think about the very different weight bias on the Manx. Thanks Q-dog for pointing that out. Well I'm not married to the disc brakes idea, I just thought that since I've got a pretty perked up 2110 being built, I'd better beef up the stopping department. Right now the brakes are very soft and I use a lot of leg power and downshifting. I suppose I could change the shoes, drums, master cylinder and put in fresh fluid.

For the wheels, I know I'd be better off with 15x10's than 15x8's to pair with the 295's but I'm pretty sure they'll stick a bit too far out of the fender and the cops around here are kinda frowning on that. For the front I will try to look into Cooper tires see if they do some narrow white lettered and if all else fails I will shell out for American Racing Ansen 15x 6's.

Andygere, i never heard of widenning rims, but I want to give the buggy more of a 70's muscle car look, the sprintstars are definitelly too "euro" looking for my taste.

[Buggy Brian]

My opinion, and you can take it as just that, is that 10" wides in the rear are too wide. That's just my opinion. I've seen some that are nice looking, but I really don't care to have them stick out from the fenders.
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-(Loretta) Manx # M2940D910E on customized 1970 chassis by Joescoolcustoms
-(Scarlett) Manx Resorter #12 (R0012B931S) on 1969 chassis.
-Original Home built buggy that started all. I learned to drive in it back in 1985.
Manx Club Member # 4436

Check out my Loretta here: http://www.manxclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=3365Manx

Scarlett is getting a Makeover! http://manxclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3745&p=24983#p24983

[Singerdude]

[SBD]

I'm running 295/50 15 tires on 8" wide wheels on the rear of my Kelmark with no problems.
Here's one listing for a drum with the Chevy pattern. I know when I bought mine I found several places that sold them.
http://www.socalautoparts.com/product_info.php/ind...x4-p-13058
Cip1 lists them too but says they're out of stock right now.
http://www.cip1.ca/SearchResults.asp?search=chevy+pattern+drum&Submit=
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"Just $99 down and $64 a month for 36 months buys you a brand new Volkswagen Beetle!"

[andygere]

I bought my rear drums from SoCalAutoparts. I had them install the studs as well and am very pleased with them.

The width of the rim really doesn't determine how much the tire sticks out past the fender, the tire size does. A 295-50 is 295 mm wide, no matter what rim you put it on. A narrower rim will simply bend the sidewall in towards the rim, but the contact patch will be more or less the same. You will have less wheel out past the fenders (assuming the backspacing is the same on both), but that's probably not what you are really worried about. In either case, getting a wheel with the maximum amount of backspacing is what will reduce how much tire hangs out past the fenders. If you are buying new rear tires, you can reduce overhang by 20 mm by switching to 275 60-15s. They still have that fat rear tire look, and are a little taller so they fill the wheel opening a bit more. Something to consider.

[Singerdude]

Thanks for the links SBD.

[Singerdude]

Would 7 inches rims fit in the front? I just found a site listing American Racing AR23's for real cheap, and it's one of the models I also like very much. They have 8 inches and 7 inches in the chevy pattern.

[langan]

Kinda chevy but they fit nice

[Singerdude]

Whoa!!! If I my buggy was as low as that purple one, with the state the roads are in back home, It would grind straight through the pan in no time. Well, then I could do a Flintstones Replica Manx !!!!

So you have 7 inches in the front without issue? That's cool, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pull the trigger on those AR 23's.

[mtnroads]

7's & 8's on the red car

5.5's & 8's on the gold car

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pax
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished....

[wythac]

Not that your new choices won't look good too, but I have to say I like how it looks with the sprintstars....

[Singerdude]

Nice looking buggies mntroad

Wythac, I don't hate the sprintstars, but they're definitely too narrow. And you know how it is when you buy a car, you want to add your own touch to it...

[wythac]

I get it. It won't really be your car until you add your touches.

Don't know if you've thought of this, or are interested, but offroad tires are fat...keep your sprintstars and highway tires for street and put something more aggressive on your new rims.

[Singerdude]

Thank you for your suggestion, but I don't take this buggy offroad, I still have my motocross bike if I feel like eating dirt The sprintstars will probably go on a future buggy for my girlfriend, along with my current engine and tranny once the new turnkey and pro-street are delivered.

[wythac]

Just sayin....

I see the wisdom in your plan though: "Honey, I'm not really buying stuff for my car, I am freeing up parts to build YOURS".

Unassailably brilliant.

[Singerdude]

At last, my genius is acknowledged Joking aside, my condolences to our fellow VW afficionados who have to resort to such plans. My better half is into the whole thing, she loves the buggy. Her father is a mustang guy, owns a couple of nice 60's and 70's models so she grew up around cars, tools and parts catalogs. She's sweet talked her dad who's close to retirement, to start a father/daughter project car. I'm helping them up by offering some spare parts, garage space and the occasional wrench.

Btw, I like the color of your buggy.