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Well, I picked up some used 185/60r15s and slapped on my drop spindles. Seems to not rub, but I haven't driven around much, just in the parking lot of my apartment. Looks great though!

That will rub when you get on the brakes hard.. mine did. I ended up giving it some negative camber and it no longer rubs.

I only tried hard braking at like 10mph or so, I assumed it would rub under extreme physics, lol. Thanks for the info! I'll keep the camber in mind.

Try turning your wheels lock to lock and have someone heavy enough bounce on the bumper to see if there is any contact. Messing with the alignment to get clearance isn't always a good thing to do and for many reasons such as for safety and premature wearing of parts. Nitpicky but worth thinking about.

Lee

I'll have to find someone heavy enough to jump around in the car, lol.

Mine only rubbed when The front end came down after hard acceleration (Read "Slight wheelies")... when It came down the fenders rubbed hard enough to move the fender on the mounting bolts. If you get into a situation where you have hard suspension changes similarly, you can damage the body of the car along with the fenders... I have seen this rip out the captured nut plates from the body.

Whether it is good or bad I am not sure of but narrowed beams seem to be used by some with satisfactory results.

Lee

mines 3inch narrowed (going by how much i had to cut off my leaves) and i have dropped disc spindles and stock front wheels and stock size original tyres for the time being, and i have about 3 fingers of clearance which id say was 2-3inch clearance but i should be able to fit a 5.5 beetle steel in there and with some sticky tyre on it hopefully!

looks great. I'd like to do the same on my 72.

Resurrecting this thread. I never updated it, those 185/60's rub while turning. Between the drop spindles and the wheels the tires stick out past the fenders. Some questions:
Would a bigger front sway bar help with tire rub? I was probably going to upgrade that anyway.
Are there any 5-5.5" wide wheels that don't stick out so much? These GT-5s have like 3-3/4" backspacing. 5x205 bolt pattern.
Thanks everyone, happy new year!

SparksLP wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 8:55 am Resurrecting this thread. I never updated it, those 185/60's rub while turning. Between the drop spindles and the wheels the tires stick out past the fenders. Some questions:
Would a bigger front sway bar help with tire rub? I was probably going to upgrade that anyway.
Are there any 5-5.5" wide wheels that don't stick out so much? These GT-5s have like 3-3/4" backspacing. 5x205 bolt pattern.
Thanks everyone, happy new year!

Sparks, basically both ends of the sway bar go up and down evenly during relatively straight ahead driving but twists/works as the suspension changes having different loads on each side. Turning or even side winds can change the way the sway bar works at any one time.

Lee

Isn't the point behind a larger sway bar to limit body roll, or keep the front more "level"? So by that logic would it not prevent suspension travel?

SparksLP wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:44 pm Isn't the point behind a larger sway bar to limit body roll, or keep the front more "level"? So by that logic would it not prevent suspension travel?

A sway bar is basically a torsion bar (hence the want for a bigger dia. sway bar in some cases). Some bars are attached to both arms and pivoted on the frame. VW didn't originally attach in the center as I remember, only at the ends (not sure how much effect the beam has in this situation).

Basically, as/if the suspension is going up and down equally on both suspension pieces and the body is not affected in any way the sway bar only rotates up and down and doesn't do much torsional, if any, work. If there is body roll to one side or the other or the suspension sides are working differently then the say bar can start doing it's job of keeping things as level (et al/e.g.) as it can.

Lee

I tried to be as simplistic as I could as this just isn't as a simplistic thing as it often sounds to be.

Lee

Makes sense, thanks!