Narrowed beam question.

[Jerome]

I have 15inch by 4inch width stock smoothies. No tires yet. With a 6 inch narrowed beam, no towers, 2 inch drop spindles and adjusters in the beam, will I rub with a stock looking whitewall tire?

Anyone with narrowed beam experience?

[Trevor P]

Rubbing where? I would think you may have rubbing issues on the headlight buckets if you go very low and for sure it will rub on the inner fender wells by the heater channels at full lock. On a positive note you should not have any rubbing issues on the outer fender lips.

[Bruce]

Of course you're gonna rub!  Both on the headlight bucket and the inner fender at the rear of the tire.
And you can forget about doing a U-turn.

[Jerome]

Of course you're gonna rub!  Both on the headlight bucket and the inner fender at the rear of the tire.
And you can forget about doing a U-turn.

I've read in various Samba threads that on pre 61 cars ( mine is 57 ) the kick / inner tire well gives more clearance to the tire. The later models had more interior foot room = less wheel well space.... Soooo....... a narrower beam on an early bug has less rub than a later bug. Having said that, I am curious as to where the advantage stops. Do I have to use smart car tires? Or can I use a stock looking white wall with success. Would a 4-5 inch narrow job be better for the smoothies with the larger tire? This tread (http://www.kustomcoachwerks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3035) has some good info, but there are no suggestions for the stock 4 inch rim and lowering combinations. Just break stuff and aftermarket rims / rubbers.

Jerome

[firebug]

I found this thread had a bunch of good info

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482522&highlight=stock+smoothies+narrowed+beam

[Trevor P]

My 57 with a 3" inch beam and chopped fuchs (4 1/2") with 135's  has about 1/2" of clearance between the inner fender well and tire at full lock.
I'm certain a 165 with a 6" beam is gonna hit there.

[70's Looker]

haha with my 5inch beam and 2 1/2 drop spindles it reeked havoc on the buckets and the inner fender i mean if you plan on running something thats not stock, it aint going to work RIGHT ya deal with it, i never had a problem driving the car and with a small wheel movement the car would jump and rub and cause a dangerous path of travel, but to park the damn thing it was a pain in the ass its a stupid look  but i had to try it and see what all the fuss is about, and for the amount of people that were like wow you got a five inch beam ooooo cool, i got alot more questions whats wrong with the front end that got anoying, if you dont care about comfort and alot of stupid questions then shit go for it, but to me a stock 165 white wall tire sure does seem like it would be freaking tight! i recall when i had stock wheels with the stock biasplys the car wouldnt move the tires were touching everywhere! do your research and think about what you realy want out of your car