Factory 356/912 steel wheels?

[youngnstudly]

I am getting ready to rebuild an extra link pin front beam for my car using CSP adjusters (avis style), CB dropped disc spindles, and ghia rotors/calipers, but I am not going to run the standard Fuchs on this car since it is my daily driver. I have been searching for information on the factory steel Porsche rims that have a 5x130mm bolt pattern, but I can't seem to find any info on them, or pics of bugs running these rims. From what I have researched, they come in either a 4.5" width or 5.5" width (depending on the year they were produced) and later model Porsches have the 5.5" rims as spare tires (70's and 80's cars).

I was also wondering if the flat (stock) Porsche hubcap will fit on the rims even though the VW grease caps stick out. Anyone have info or pics of VW's running these rims??? I am looking at a set of 4 tomorrow from the local tire shop...$65 per rim and I get my pic of which ones I want to take (some are rusty and others are not). He has the stock caps as well. I'll have 4.5's on the front and 5.5's on the rear if everything goes as planned.

Andy

This is the style of rim I am looking at tomorrow (this photo was borrowed from thesamba).

[javabug]

I have a small collection.  Think I have a set of 5.5s, one 4.5, and one home-grown 6.  I run one of the 5.5s for my spare.

Watch out for chrome ones.  They're not my preference, but you may dig 'em.  The caps fit on my ball joint car, should be ok on link pin I think?

[youngnstudly]

Sweet! That looks good javabug. Your car looks so much better than my car does with silver rims and hubcaps since my car is in red primer. I am going to get the  rims today and I think I might even drop them off at the powder coating place in the next town so I can make all of my "out of town" stops in one day. I have a rotor and grease cap to bring along to make sure everything fits. I'd love to find a pair of 6" wide rims like the one you have, but who knows, I might buy a pair later and weld American car outer rims to the Porsche centers to get the size rim I want.

I'm thinking of going with red for the powder coating and installing my trim rings with the caps. Big and little tires of course. I'm tired of the "look" I'm running now and I want to lower the car back down....Makes me think I am driving a stock car (and we can't have that! ).

old shot:


how it looks now but the front is raised up 2" higher due to tire rub:


Andy

[javabug]

One thing I forgot to mention:  watch the center holes if you're mixing and matching.  The older ones have a smaller hole with a flange like most steel wheels, and the newer ones used as "spares" in some cars have a larger hole with no flange, just a slight pressing bulge.  Just something to pay attention to if you're mixing and matching.

I like your silver 356 wheels.  What size tires on that front shot?

[Bruce]

They also were made in a 6" width.

[Nico86]

how it looks now but the front is raised up 2" higher due to tire rub:

What tire sizes you have on it ?

[youngnstudly]

I just bought the rims and took them straight over to Les Schwab for powder coating. I matched up the rims with each other and ended up getting 3 rims that are 4.5" wide and 2 that are 5.5" wide. I had the wheel shop spin them and 4 looked great while one of the 4.5" rims had a slight wobble to it....That will be the one I use for a spare tire. Wasn't as cheap as I wanted to get them for, but I did save money over buying them on Ebay and paying shipping. Each rim (used) was $65 plus tax, and the powder coat fee at Les Schwab was $27 per rim plus tax. I am picking the finished rims up in a week and I had them powder coated in red. I still need to get some Porsche caps for them and the wheel shop said they have the  correct caps (for $25 each) but they need to search for them in the shed. Still pretty cheap overall I guess.

One thing I forgot to mention:  watch the center holes if you're mixing and matching.  The older ones have a smaller hole with a flange like most steel wheels, and the newer ones used as "spares" in some cars have a larger hole with no flange, just a slight pressing bulge.  Just something to pay attention to if you're mixing and matching.

I like your silver 356 wheels.  What size tires on that front shot?

I "think" I got all 5 rims with the smaller hole and a flange...hopefully anyways( )! The front tires that are on the silver rims are 185/65/15's (and thanks for the compliment). The car looks good in the photo but I had to raise it up and now I don't like the look....It looks like grandma's car!

[Nico86]

It looks nice, maybe you should get slightly smaller tires.

[youngnstudly]

They also were made in a 6" width.

I might try to find some in that width later on. Thanks for the info Bruce.

What tire sizes you have on it ?

On the red rims I was running 145 Keeblers (I loved them but they would lock up fairly easy...until I used larger wheel cylinders in the rear), and on the back rims (which are the 4.5" Lemmerz off a 356) I have the standard 165's.

On these "new" rims I plan on getting some 155's for the front and some 205's or possibly 215's on the rear.

I got a flat tire with the red rims and all the other tires were dry cracked so I just had the tire shop install 4 new tires (that they had in stock) on my chrome rims (which was 185/65/15 front and 205/65/15 on the rear). I needed to drive the car to work the next day and they couldn't get any smaller tires for me. Then I got bored with the chrome rusting, so I painted them silver.

Almost looks better without caps


Andy

[Rennsurfer]

I've always wanted to build a late Type 1 with those wheels and caps (356C/911 steel).

Excellent choice!

[John Rayburn]

No, you haven't.

[DKK - Lisa]

John, are you causing trouble again?

[Jim Ratto]

we had a good customer @ BH that had an ivory '67 sedan that ran those wheels, thought it always looked "right"

Nice touch.