TheSamba.com :: View topic - 17" and 19" Smoothie prototypes......BADASS

Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:39 pm

Check em.... These are prototypes that made their debut at Volksblast in Miami built by Frank and Reds Miami......doing it up BIG with 17 and 19 inch vintage looking smoothies!!!

on his 65 Vert.....

Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:25 pm

Uhhhh... Thats pretty fricken cool... :shock:

I think the rear would look better if it looked more like one piece instead of looking like an extra lip was welded on IMHO. The idea is awesome and it looks great!

Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:07 pm

Oh my god that's awesome :shock: That's like so awesome. I really want a set, seriously.

Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:26 pm

i think im in love =P~

Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:49 pm

Are the caps oversized as well? What if they were oversized big logo caps :o

Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:29 pm

theyd look better without all those steps. Looks like they just welded a hoop to a whole 15" smoothie, its got two outer lips now

Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:22 pm

Fab4Fan wrote: theyd look better without all those steps. Looks like they just welded a hoop to a whole 15" smoothie, its got two outer lips now

That's what I was thinkin... looks decent in the pic from a distance, but the up close pic looks like your'e looking down a piece of corrugated pipe :lol:

Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:04 pm

Very cool thought though, wonder if those guys out in cali that do all the wheel widening ever put the centers in larger hoops without all the steps??

Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:24 am

Grendelspop wrote: Very cool thought though, wonder if those guys out in cali that do all the wheel widening ever put the centers in larger hoops without all the steps??

Not sure but that would be sweet especially with oversized caps as mentioned above.

Sun Feb 07, 2010 1:14 pm

Grendelspop wrote: Very cool thought though, wonder if those guys out in cali that do all the wheel widening ever put the centers in larger hoops without all the steps??

typically usually the most you can move up will be one size wheel unless you use stepped hoops which would still look cleaner than the ones pictured above. so with that you could probably turn 15s into 16s without much trouble and i guess if you got lucky and maybe scored some early 16s with wasted hoops you may could go 17 on those.

the ones pictured above really look like someone welded a bigger hoop to a full 15 wheel. even staggered hoops shouldn't look that obvious.

i've often thought 16,17, or 18" og smoothies from american makes with an adapted vw cap might be interesting. all that would require is adapting to whatever the bolt pattern of the wheels was and then if you wanted caps adapt the caps to fit. 17s with caps and trim rings would be cool...ken....

Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:09 pm

I have actually been talking to my local machine shop about welding in my centers to new hoops. I wouldnt mind trying what you said at the first of your post if i could find a 16' barrel that stepped down that far. If you lined them up (center and barrel) you could weld them together right at the curve of the step and then grind them down to look just like the factory smoothy just with a wider step.. Does that make sense? The hard part would be finding or fabbing the barrel. Actually i just looked at this first pic again and it looks like that person could have just matched the 2 barrels up better and then put a solid weld all the way around the inner barrel's lip to almost get that effect.

Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:55 pm

seperate a vw center from it's hoop and measure outside to outside overall diameter. i remember it being in here somewhere i think in a thread on widening stock wheels but a to lazy to go dig it up :D . armed with that info go hit the junk yard looking for a 16 or maybe you get lucky and find a 17 with a similar Inner hoop diameter as the Outer diameter of the vw center. if you want to keep them skinny i'd probably look at spares. if you don't find what your looking for there i'd maybe switch to newer larger sedans. if you find something close i've heard of people using as much as 1/8" spacers between the inner and hoop.

as for welding the two together other than possible shims/spacers it's just like welding a wider hoop or changing to a different offset and theres plenty of info out there about how to do that at home if you have comperable welding skills...ken....

Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:36 am

I have been on the search recently for such a 16-18" hoop to fit a VW smoothie center into and nothin' doin'...
The smoothie center is 13 1/4" in diameter and most of the 16" hoops I have found have a 13 5/8" to 14"+ inside diameter with 17" to 18" hoops having even larger dimensions. As pictured in the first post, it wouldn't be tough to find a large hoop to weld a stock 15x4 smoothie wheel right into, lopping off the rear lip and inserting into the larger hoop...but I'm not crazy about the "corrugated" look...
I just mocked up a 16x4 smoothie in a 16" hoop with the smallest inside diameter (drop center) I could find and ended up fabricating a thin band to fill the void between the center and the hoop...

Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:57 am

This looks really good man. That spacer is just barely seen and after paint I'll bet it will just dissapear.Good job!

Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:05 am

Are those stock 16 inchers? :lol:

Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:22 pm

any 16” smoothies around?

Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:49 pm

BMAN130 wrote: any 16” smoothies around?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275459417107?hash=item402...R4Sz15yzYQ
no affiliation

Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:27 pm

Look no further than the vendors on this beloved website:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2576865

I can't believe it's been 12 YEARS since I last posted on this thread :shock:

Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:49 pm

Anyone looking for 17" Steel Smoothies check out my YouTube Channel :D

Seventeen Inch Smoothies!!, on YouTube!!