New 16" Wheels for the Westy

82WestyMan · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: New 16" Wheels for the Westy

Thought I'd start this thread about the new wheels I found on craigslist in asheville nc (about an hour from me)
Long story short, they were a set of 4 Milla Miglia Spider 16x7.5's / ET35 from an Audi A6. Seller had them up for over a month for $250 with some pretty worn 225/50x16 Dunlop SP Winter/Sports. Went up to look at them, the faces had some road rash but offered him $200 and he took it.
I wrote Mr. Loogy before I went up and gave him what I could find before seeing the wheels. Since the lug holes were already 14mm, it should be a matter of just spacers and longer studs in the rear though I do want to do the 'stud conversion' on the front rotors so I have lug nuts at all four corners.
As far as the road rash on the front of the wheels goes, may plan, and I hope the forum can help here, is to clean and fill the scratches and light gashes since I want to have them painted to match my body paint.
I just tried a 'dry fit' with no spacers and grease caps in place to see how much modification they're going to need. From the look of things, looks like I won't need to drill out the centers at all, should just need spacers, studs, etc. and the center caps should fit
Below are the wheels faces, the dry fit pictures and pics of the inside of the wheels

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

The 'Dry Fit'

Inside the wheels

_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

floggingmolly · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject:

Those are some sweet wheels 82WM, I'm jealous. I would agree, looks like all you need are a small set of spacers, maybe like 5 mm, the hardware, and off you go!

Nice find! Once you get the set up all done and purty, update the ultimate wheel post for others to oogle over and learn from.
_________________
'85 Wolfsburg Weekender

hiram6 · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

Can't tell how deep the scratches are in your pictures, but you may be able to get by with a little sandpaper action to smooth down the rough parts,

If you want to stick with silver, most FLAPs will stock a spray can of "Alloy Wheel Silver" that is specifically made for, guess what....alloy wheels!! It goes on kinda thick and is somewhat self-leveling, so it helps fill in small nicks and scratches. Prep is key in painting wheels, you need to clean them with something to strip off every last vestige of silicone, wax, or oil to ever come in contact with the wheel. I used a product called "Pant Prep" that I got from a local auto paint supply shop years ago. Spray it on, wipe it off, dry again with paper towels. Done.

Are you sure you don't want to stick with the silver? I know the mono-color look is what you're going for, but IMHO I think those wheels would look GREAT if you left them silver. Applause

MIght look good in the tan as well, just can't picture that in my head.
_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

PDXWesty · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

Those are nice!!!

The scratches don't look that bad to me. I would probably live with them that way and just polish them up. Anything you do by yourself might just make them look worse. You could probably get them powder coated for about $300 though and they would look new and all match.

Now just find some for me!

jackbombay · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject:

Nice wheels! Do you have any pics of them on the van from farther away?
_________________

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ohlott · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject:

Nice rims.

What type of tires are you going to use?
_________________
83.5 westy 2.2 subi

82WestyMan · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject:

Thanx for the feedback. Getting the wheels was just a matter of dumb luck. The first pics I posted didn't do the 'road rash' justice. I'm attaching a few close-up... a bit more than mere polishing to fix these.
I did do a google search on 'alloy wheel filter repair' and came up with the following
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/realwhda.html
I figured since I'm going to have to do some fairly major repairs, I might as well go ahead an finish the monochrome look (... and yes, I've been keeping my eye on that thread about those red rear side markers in smoke ... to match my smoke front turn signals and tail lights...)
I do plan on posting the whole repair process and installation but I'm currently riding on some factory 14" alloys with new tires so I'm in no hurry
(... and yes, they're going to be 'For Sale' with the chrome lug hardware once this upgrade is complete... "pick-up" in SC only... lol )

_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

82WestyMan · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject:

Well, got my wheels back from my painter this afternoon and thought I'd post little update while I wait on my new 225/55HR16 99H XL Continental ContiProContacts at Discount Tire and my lugs, nuts and spacers from Loogy
The 5 pics are Before, closeup of curb rash, work in progress, filled with body spot filler and After... (i even filled in the 'Milla Miglia" emblems in wheels and the caps now have VW emblems too)
I'll post some final 'before' and 'after' pics of the van wih them installed

_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Raggamuffin · Samba Member Joined: July 18, 2006 Posts: 789 Location: GA

Good that you stuck with your guns on the wheel color...those are going to look beautiful!

Nice work.

Crughy · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:28 pm Post subject:

Creamy!

I always had a soft spot for white wheels. I like the 80's and group B rally.
I know it's not white exactly.
I like it, very original. Not too show off either.

I hope the paint remains and it wont get too dirty.

Give some feedback and pics. Nice work!

JP

Crankey · Samba Member Joined: July 11, 2004 Posts: 2656

those nics don't look bad at all if your painting. if you were going to have them raw metal and polish them I still doubt I'd bother welding up the nics. more likely just sand them out with a da sander.

these'll look sweet on your ride.

82WestyMan · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:12 pm Post subject:

Just an update on the wheels and tires for the Westy
Ran into one small set back. When I was getting the new Conti's mounted and balanced, turns out one of the rims had a pretty good bend on the inner lip. enough to put a pretty good wobble in the wheel.
Long story short, I was lucky enough that the only real alloy wheel repair shop in SC (lots do 'refinishing, these guys do actual repairs and retruing) was in the update, only about 10 miles away. $110 later, I dropped the wheel back at my painter yesterday afternoon to get it touched up.
I got the new longer studs for the rear from Loogy pressed in the hubs this morning, installed the hubs and just finished installing the new studs in the front rotors (loctite blue in case I ever need to get them out again).
Thought I'd include a couple of pictures of old vw alloys vs the new milla miglia wheels.
Now I'm just waiting on the wheel to get back from the painter and the spacers to show up.
... i really like the difference it makes in the 'look'... can't wait to see what difference it makes in the handling

old vs new

_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Crankey · Samba Member Joined: July 11, 2004 Posts: 2656

man, those will look great. I wasn't stunned and amazed at the difference in road feel and handeling when I made the change but the look was more than enough reason to go through this imho.

nice going man !

msinabottle · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: Flipping Gorgeous!

Those rims are really stunning, 82WestyMan, and really compliment your van's distinctive look!

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

82WestyMan · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject:

... thanx for compliments ...

its a work in progress but at least now its mostly just 'wanna haves' instead of 'gotta do's' ...
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Crughy · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject:

Amazing how the original alloys look really ugly/unfit now?

I look you dipped the van in some creamy dessert.

Slurp.

JP

regis101 · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject:

What was the outcome of the spacer. I found a link that states the Vanagon wheel has a 35 ET. Below as quoted from Vanagon.com

The Vanagon bolt pattern is 5 x 112. The stock wheel offset is ET-35. Wheels marked 'ET-45' will therefore sit 10mm closer inwards. This has the advantage of keeping fat tires more under the fenders. See Michael Sullivan's Vanagon tire section diagram for a visual explanation of this.

Note that while tires are divided into '2WD' and 'Syncro' sections, all wheels are appropriate for all vehicles.

*update. I run the Vanagon alloys on my bus. Just looked at the spare and it is indeed ET30.
What are the ET of Vanagon steel wheels?
_________________
Peace, Regis

82WestyMan · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject:

I'm getting my spacers from Loogy. Though the stock and these wheels share the same ET of 35, when I test fitted them, they just touched the upper part of the spindle (pic posted above) On his advice, I'm going with 7mm spacers to get the ET from 35 to 28. That should be give me plenty of room in the front and not push the rears out too far in the rear

He had a little problem with his machinist but they should on their way to me next week.
Important thing is this... He was completely professional and totally customer oriented and offered to go above and beyond...
and in this day and age of suppliers, he not only has my business for life but my complete recommendation to others....
He's 'Top Shelf'

When I get them in and have the wheels mounted, I'll post some final pictures and add a 'Reader's Digest' version to the 'Ultimate Wheel' post
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

regis101 · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:10 pm Post subject:

I had some Audi 15 x 7's with ET 39 and had no issues. The Bus and the Vanagon are different animals but wouldn't have thought wheel ET was this critical.
_________________
Peace, Regis

floggingmolly · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject:


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