"western" alloys???????

oorwullie · Post by **oorwullie** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:30 am

anyone have any info on these wheels? please.

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:57 pm

15X 5.5" I believe, fairly easy to find in the U.S., as well as inexpensive. Are they any good? I have no idea. They're not very popular right now, AFAIK, but I think they are a decent looking wheel.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... ?id=205639

oorwullie · Post by **oorwullie** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:36 am

thanks ubercrap. too bad ye don't have the "ü" on yer keyboard

these ones seem to be popular:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 8015548980

was looking at some original brochures for 914 at a mate's today, they definately were never a factory offer.

Dave_Darling · Post by **Dave_Darling** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:34 am

True--there were only six wheels that I can think of that were factory options on the four-cylinder 914s.

Early cars had 4.5" wide steel wheels "standard", to keep the base price down. Very few cars in the US, at least, kept their 4.5s--the dealers added other wheels to jack up their profit margin.

Another option for early cars were 5.5" steel wheels.

Later, the 5.5" "styled steel" wheels supplanted the earlier design.

Early cars (at least 1971, possibly 1970) could be fitted with 5.5" wide Pedrini cast aluminum wheels. A revised version was offered in 1973 that fit the hub-centering rings on the front of the 73+ cars.

The Mahle 5.5" wide cast-aluminum wheel was introduced in 1973, I believe.

Fuchs supplied a 5.5" wide forged-aluminum wheel, starting in the 73 model year as well.

All of these wheels were 15" in diameter.

All other four-bolt wheels fitted to 914s were aftermarket, though many were installed by the dealers. (See earlier comments about "profit margins".)

--DD

oorwullie · Post by **oorwullie** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:44 pm

dat dave guy is just absolutely right.

no worries, these westerns are nice and somebody's gonna be really happy with them.