Narrowed fount beam to fit 18" wheels on 1500 beetle

[paulgrey]

Hello, I have just bought a set of 18" by 7.5" wheels that I am planing to put on my 1500 beetle, the wheels fit but I find that when I to=urn the steering to full lock I am getting contact between the strut tower (wich has been ground back) and the rim and also the lower suppension arm. I think the best way to overcome this is to norrow the front beem and put the wheels on spacers... however I have had a look and am wondering how much the beem can be narrowed by. Any advice would be welcomed, Buy the way it looks absolutley sick with the wheels on 18" Chrome DTM wheels.

[vujade]

I would say that depending on what brake setup you are going to run, you will want to narrow the beam between 2-3" total.

[paulgrey]

Thanks for the tip, there is not a lot of room to move but 2-3 inches should be possible... the brakes that are on the front are cross drill standard 1500 front disks and calipers, do you have any suggestions with regards to brakes?.

[vujade]

I will be running POrsche 993TT brakes in the front.

From what I understand, these are easily adapted to the front of a standard beetle. Sandeep did a tech article on his setup.

Teke a look on the main page of the website.

[BigPhattyVW]

Hello

Hey PaulGrey, what is the offset of your DTM wheels?

Thanks
Clint

[paulgrey]

The offset of these wheels is ET 43.

I am still having issues fitting them on the front of the beetle, but once I get enough money together I will be looking at getting a beam imported. If anyone can recommend compaines that build narrowed front beams for beetles I would be interested in checking them out.

Here is a Pic of the beetle with the wheels fitted.