Wheel fitment guide – Aircooled VWs

Overview: Outlined below are general wheel fitting guidelines. Check Lanner’s wheel fitment article in the June/03 issue of VWTrends.

Strut Front Suspension (Super Beetle):

Strut front suspensions will easily accommodate up to a 7″ wide rim as long as the offset is greater than 38mm. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the coil spring. The stock spring is very wide, and will interfere with the wheel/tire. The strut has to be exchanged for an aftermarket strut that utilises narrower coil springs. Alternatively, rear Honda CRX coils springs very closely match the spring rate of a stock Super, while being significantly narrower. Shown on the right is a 16x7ET40 with 205/45 tires on 72 Super. The front disk (stock VW) was redrilled to 4-100mm pattern and 1/8″ spacers are used for coil clearance. The above mentioned Honda coils replaced the original coils.

Ball Joint (BJ) and Link Pin (LP) front suspension:

Ball joint and link pin suspension can fit a 7″ rim as long as the offset is greater than 38mm. The drums can be redrilled to fit the wheel. However, the rims will be on the edge of the fender and will interfere on lowered vehicles. It is suggested that the front beam be narrowed by at least 2″ to prevent fender rubbing issues. On the right shows a 17x7ET38 rim with 205/40 tires on 74 standard. Front BJ beam narrowed 3″ and lowered via adjusters. The stock drums have been redrilled to 4-100mm.

Rear suspension:

Some small modifications are required to fit 7″ rims on the rear suspension of T1’s. The upper bump stop plate will have to be trimmed slightly to provided tire clearance. Also, the forward most springplate bolt on IRS cars will have to be replaced by either a button-head screw or countersunk flat head screw.

Swing-axle cars with short axles (66 and earlier) will render the wheel too far into the fender and the tire will rub on the springplate. Therefore, you can either switch to long axles, or use a wheel spacer with longer studs.

Here’s the pdf version: WHEELFITMENTGUIDE