Aesthetic help for Rabbit!!!!!!!!!!

[rabbit82]

A set of Flakes as clean and bright as ORC found would fetch 250-300.
80 is completely untypical unless they are quite rough.
In 5 years have found 4 sets - 2 sets were full silver paint like from later model Cabriolets - 2 sets were decent driver quality early model type (good to restore later on).

You wanna sell a set of the "driver quality" wheels?

As far as the fender flares, everyone was saying MK1autohaus had them. The only place I could find this dealer was on ebay, is this the correct dealer I am loooking for? If so,  they don't have them. Said they may have some later in the year. Any other places to look?

[ORCoaster]

Mk1 is an Ebay site so you are "there"  not in stock?  What the heck?  That other guy with the tan car got to them first. 

I picked up a set of Riken 13 wheels with tires about a month ago for my summer tires.  Price,  Killed me to pay it but 25 a rim with a tire on it.  Am going to yank the fat 185s off of it and go to the 155 80R 13 if I can find them.  Discount Tire Direct only has the 165s and up.  In fact if you go to that website they show what would be an up one size or two size jump that will still work on the car you are querying on.  They had free shipping going on most tires,  not sure about their rims.

The snowflakes are my winter snow tires so they are about to come off.  Going back to the mileage makers.  Whhooo for 50 MPG at 65 MPH. 

[Baron VonZeppelin]

You wanna sell a set of the "driver quality" wheels?

As far as the fender flares, ...Any other places to look?

One set is on my 81 TDTruck, other set i'm gonna do up fancy.
Sold one set of the Silvers, might would sell this other set too.
Can let you know - they are tenative in a possible trade right now.

They came factory painted Silver on 85 (and think 86 too maybe further) on GTi, and the mid-later 80's Cabriolet. Some even came White. But these aren't an afterproduct paint job that will flake/peel/bubble.

They'd look best on Silver car, or dark color car, as-is.
Or the insets could be painted - or the fins could be sanded down to natural.
etc ... etc

The best benefit (in most opinions) is Flakes are ultra ultra light weight.
None other is really even close per faktry.

Prothe might have the flares - but don't buy his mechanical or maintenence stuff before getting opinions from some of us on here.
http://www.hansdieselparts.com/
http://www.dieselvw.com/

Or these places might

http://www.rsjparts.com/catalog/

http://www.jbugs.com/category/1087.html

http://www.duckyimports.com/servlet/StoreFront

[rs899]

Sorry, I missed a lot of this discussion, but I know Saturn rims fit our cars.  I have some 14" steelies on my pickup and bought some 15", but haven't tried them on.  Some had alloys.

Still looking for some decent snowflakes around here... I have some 13" manhole covers- I thought these were the lightest alloys?

[rabbit82]

 Prothe might have the flares - but don't buy his mechanical or maintenence stuff before getting opinions from some of us on here.
http://www.hansdieselparts.com/
http://www.dieselvw.com/

Or these places might

http://www.rsjparts.com/catalog/

http://www.jbugs.com/category/1087.html

http://www.duckyimports.com/servlet/StoreFront
[/quote]

The only site you sent me that have these is http://www.duckyimports.com/servlet/StoreFront at a price of $325 for four. WOW! I guess I will stay with what I have if they are that much. I was thinking they would be around $100 for four. I'll just hang around and wait for a deal on a used set or something.

[rabbit82]

I need to slow down a minute and find out exactly what I am getting into with the larger wheels and tires.
1)How much will my mpg suffer?
2)How much power will I loose?
3)How much power will I loose going up hills on the interstate cruising at 65?

[ORCoaster]

I need to slow down a minute and find out exactly what I am getting into with the larger wheels and tires.
1)How much will my mpg suffer?
2)How much power will I loose?
3)How much power will I loose going up hills on the interstate cruising at 65?

From one who has done the change in the last few months I can't say that you will suffer much from mileage decrease.  I was running 165 70R 13s and swapped to 185 60R/ 70R 14s and I see about 2 mpg less on the newer tires.  But I attribute the loss to increased width, more aggressive tread (they are snow tires) and the fact that it is cold now.

Power is a function of RPM for me.  So as the engine does turn a little slower I find I needed to twist the power/smoke screw in by about an eight of a turn.  Another reason why I may have lots MPG.

Cruising at 65 I don't see any loss of power,  I notice that if I run less power screw in that I need to downshift to 4th for some of the extended hills but I hardly notice a loss of power at all. 

If you go to the http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html and put in the sizes you are looking at you will see there may be a very small difference between them 

[Baron VonZeppelin]

Those at Ducky must have been NOS.
Those flares were being repopped for like 125-150 set .....i think.
Guess most have sold out for right now.

You can have 14" wheels with a shorter tire height than a 13" - depending on tire sizes.

A larger tire height will gain you some on overall MPG.

A heavier rim will reduce you "some" in town and on acceleration, but probably work in favor on open roads and smoother ride.

Most go to 14" either for a potential taller tire height - or because the wheel they like happens to be 14" - or because they need 6" wide for wider tires.
Used 14" tires are easier to find than used 13"s too ... these days.

Have only seen one design of 13" VW alloy i thought looked good.
They didn't make many 13" alloys.
Some of the 13" full disc VW hubcaps look nice.
Not sporty - just nice/clean/civilized

Find something you like the look of and run with it.
You won't notice much if hardly any difference between 13 and 14.
15 16 17 22 24 it starts getting different.

[rabbit82]

OK, here is a test with the black stripes and faux flares. I used some cheap wide electrical tape that I had on hand. I did one test with the rockers blacked in and one without the rockers blacked in. I also blacked in the chrome body molding and the part of the grille that you see from the side. I am going to see what it looks like without the flares tomorrow. Gotta be something you can do with this paint scheme?
What colors would go with the tan interior? I am about to the point of painting the whole car. Of course there is one thing that is more important at the moment, that is another thread.
 I have to be honest, I hate it. Looks like s....t. I am thinking of just painting it up Desert Storm camo and be done
However, I did drill out the bumper shocks and push them in, looks much cleaner without that overbite. I drilled a pilot hole and used some galvanized self tapping screws that I had on hand to hold them in place. I like the look.

without rockers






with rockers

[Baron VonZeppelin]

The wheels being black is just killing everything.
And the tiny short tires.
Do them Silver like factory, or body color.

Too wide on the body black treatment.
Do just the lower rockers, and the flairs.

Its not really ugly if you get it right.

Teardrops with black tears would look good with it.

I think the guy with the Flakes on NCdubs was in Charlotte or Greenville.

[ORCoaster]

The really wide stripe is overkill.  You should try going just on the lower rocker and the flares.  The chrome wheels come close to what I think you should have.  But there needs to more blink on those rims.  Alloys would do it.  The Rabbit I had was trimmed out with black trim like you created but I had to remove it and in doing so destroyed it.  I was going to just paint that depression black but now I will it alone and just get some trim tape and do that up. 

What you have started does look less like a nunmobile.  The cameo colors would make it more red neck than a daily driver.  But I did get a chuckle out of the suggestion. 

Keep working on it.  It is on the right track.

[CRSMP5]

if you do stripes.. do gti style ones... or maybe that dot matrex style.. kinda full in color up by the crease line to a thineed out fade by the rocker..

[Baron VonZeppelin]

Man it looks so much better w/o those wheels ... lol

Try it like this maybe.
And do the door handle pockets and inner door posts with the tape.
Gets more Euro and less fuddy-duddy.

Hard to do this stuff with a mouse.

The door posts were done like that on early Mk2
The door handle pockets - i think were Volvo

[theman53]

I like the one with all the black. If you had it up front too under the bumper/body line and some nice old snowflakes, it would look good to me.

[mystery3]

A heavier rim will reduce you "some" in town and on acceleration, but probably work in favor on open roads and smoother ride.

I'm certainly not a physicist but I don't believe this to be true. I believe reducing unsprung weight is always positive from both performance and efficiency standpoints.

And as far as the flairs are concerned I've found a few sets in the junkyard for around $15-25 a set. I'm not sure how common mkI are in junkyards in your neck of the woods but might be worth considering.

I like the tape mock ups, I think if you had a set of 14-15" alloys it would look great.