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Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:37 am

Has anyone seen these or tried these?

https://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC%2DC10%2D6621%2DSMWH

I'd like to get a set of 5.5 inch wide 5 smoothies for my Ghia project. I have an original set of VW rims that I was thinking of getting widened but the cost, plus shipping, plus painting is making me slightly ill.

These look pretty good but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on quality. I plan on running a narrowed beam up front.

Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:21 pm

I just received a set of the 5.5's for my bug. The finish is real nice (almost appears powder coated) and seems to be pretty solid compared to my originals--although I don't know why they make the rims with the extra holes by the hubcap clips.

I hope to have the tires mounted by the end of the week.

Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:05 pm

Hey, that sounds great. Thanks for taking the plunge! Please post pictures once you have the tires on. I understand the offset is different than stock.

Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:42 am

Offset might be different but the backspacing is the same as stock. Unless your Ghia is lowered it shouldn't be a concern

Mon Mar 18, 2019 1:43 pm

Yup, I'm lowering with drop spindles so I plan on a 4 inch narrowed beam and I guess I'll need lower profile tires. Going to consult with the beam builder first.

I'd like to go with original two tone but it sounds like these are too nice to paint.

Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:29 pm

I believe they are the same as AA or what JBugs sells. I purchased a set for my 60 beetle and had issues even with a narrower beam. The additional 1.5” (stock smoothies are actually 4”) is added to the outside of the rim with stock backspacing. They fit the rear fine, but ended up having to get custom fronts made.

Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:21 pm

I have 6s on my 1960 bug and they fit just fine; no rubbing etc. Stock width beam, stock spindles, just welded on adjusters.

Thu Mar 21, 2019 5:18 am

jitbba wrote:

I have 6s on my 1960 bug and they fit just fine; no rubbing etc. Stock width beam, stock spindles, just welded on adjusters.

If you went any lower though you would be having issues, especially with spindles as they would kick your wheels out further.

Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:44 am

I recently purchased a set of 4 of these, 4.5" for the front and 5.5" for the rear. I haven't installed them yet but my first impression is you get what you pay for. Overall they are pretty good, but not perfect. The outter lip is somewhat inconsistent around the perimeter in the way it curves in, and there are protrutions where the wheel was welded together. With a little work and a repaint these should be a great budget option. I have heard that the hubcap clips are weak and tend to break when tweaked, so be careful. Also, one of the 4 wheels I purchased had several small bends in the lip, both front and back side, which I am attempting to rectify with the supplier however I think it will be more of a hassle to return so I just ordered a 5th wheel and may use the not so great one as the spare. Of course, if you are using trim rings then the lip issues may not bother you.

Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:24 pm

Nuz-z wrote: I recently purchased a set of 4 of these, 4.5" for the front and 5.5" for the rear. I haven't installed them yet but my first impression is you get what you pay for. Overall they are pretty good, but not perfect. The outter lip is somewhat inconsistent around the perimeter in the way it curves in, and there are protrutions where the wheel was welded together. With a little work and a repaint these should be a great budget option. I have heard that the hubcap clips are weak and tend to break when tweaked, so be careful. Also, one of the 4 wheels I purchased had several small bends in the lip, both front and back side, which I am attempting to rectify with the supplier however I think it will be more of a hassle to return so I just ordered a 5th wheel and may use the not so great one as the spare. Of course, if you are using trim rings then the lip issues may not bother you.

Cool, thanks for the review. I'm going for the vintage two-tone look on my Ghia so I don't think I would use trim rings. The outer wheel would be black so that could blend or fade into the tires. I guess I could order them without tires and have a body shop blast and paint them for me. I'm in CT too so this seems cheaper than mailing my original smoothies to California to be widened.

Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:27 pm

jitbba wrote:

I have 6s on my 1960 bug and they fit just fine; no rubbing etc. Stock width beam, stock spindles, just welded on adjusters.

There's something very cool about a vintage Beetle with patina paint and lowered with custom wheels.

Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:45 pm

Just a quick update on the extra 5th wheel I ordered, unfortunately it is no better than the other "bad" wheel. Several waves around the entire outer lip both front and back side. So don't expect these to be show quality out of the box without some work. Greatly disappointing, the money would've been better spent refinishing some stockers. Lesson learned.

Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:00 pm

Sorry, that's very disappointing. These aftermarket parts make me crazy.

And why would they send you another bad wheel? Aren't they embarrassed?!

I guess I'll keep looking for someone local to widen my wheels.

Sat Mar 30, 2019 6:43 am

Either you got a bad batch or I got extremely lucky. All of my rims are straight and no dips or bends. Paint is consistent. Granted you can see the welded strip on the hoop but even my custom widened rims have that.

If I wanted to be picky, my only complaint would be it appears they set the freshly painted rims against something to prop it up due to the indentation on the backside of the hub. Of course, this is not visible once mounted and honestly will be marred even more when they're on the car.

Still don't have them mounted though. It's been a long week

Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:11 am

Yeah I'm not sure, 3 of them are fine, but then two in a row are so so. They all have the marked paint on the backside like yours, but I'm not worried about that since I'm painting them anyway. Oh well. Still a good budget option.

Sat Mar 30, 2019 1:38 pm

I would love to see pictures of the rims. Maybe with tires mounted the flaws won't be visible?

Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:44 pm

Still have not had a chance to get the tires on but at least you can see them. The last pic shows the indentations from the wet paint on the backsides

Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:30 am

Hey, those actually look really good! Unfortunately, it's a matter of luck if you'll get a good batch or a bad batch of wheels.

Sat Apr 06, 2019 2:32 pm

i purchased 2 of the 15x5.5 and 2 of the 15x4.5 rims and the paint is well done and the outer lip is in good shape on all four. the issue i have is i bought their 'package' with came with some generic empi hub caps that i cannot for the life of me get the hubcaps to go on the rims. it feels like the caps are just too small even though they measure the same size of the original VW caps i have.

the car looks pretty cool without them though so i'm going to just roll with it, its frustrating that i can't get them to go on, even took some pliers to try to bend the clips around but after a bit felt that i was probably doing more harm than good. :D

Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:04 am

Just an update to my bent wheels issue. After weeks of back and forth with cip and countless pictures and descriptions, they deemed the bends a "normal occurrence" and are no cause for a warranty return. So be warned, what you get is what you get with them. I will not be doing business with cip in the future.