This may not interest most of you, but I have cars which have a very particular problem.

400mm tires

Put another way, earlier classic cars from Europe, like Lotus, Alfa, Citroen Panhard used 400 mm rims.

Ya can't go to a tire store and buy the skins, because the rims are 15-3/4" in diameter.

I have often seen such tires in Euro stores for up to 320 Euros each. Since I would need 15, that's a lot of cash.

Instead, I did calculating and discovered that I could make an adapter that would fit the Citroen Traction Avant rims and enable the right sized 15" VW rim to fit.

The tire would be 165 R80-15 and use a specific type of VW rim.

I built one set of protoype adapters and they work great! Had to use Porsche racing studs and lug nuts for stability but they are hidden.

The offset between the Citroen rims and these VW rims is within 5mm without modification, so I'm leaving it as is.

I can also use Citroen hubcaps and the effect is overall pretty good.

Bottom line: it's easier to do than you think and definitely worth it.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Looks good to me!

I used to run modified Toyota wheels on my Ford so you're not alone in the swapping.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

I wonder what my cd would look like with the vintage set of torque thrusts.

How did you go about making the wheel adapters?

I took some basic measurements first:

- the max tire diameter and width that would fit front and rear

- the spacing of the lug nut holes, which in the case of a Traction are 5 x 170mm.

- The ET (aka offset) and entire width of the wheel

I then matched wheels and discocvered that a VW 5 x 205mm Beetle wheel would fit the Traction, ET wise as well. and Originally Tractions used a 165 mm tire so any 165 75/80 - 15 radial would get me within the boundary

On the advice of the machinist who did these, we used 8620 steel. Better than stainless, which flexes.

Then he made an adapter which fit on the flat plate of the Traction brake drums (Tractions were built 1934-1957), where the adapter bolted to the 5 x 170mm lug bolts with recessed lug nuts. The combination then bolted to the 5 x 205 wheels, which used a different 15" Citroen hubcap from a DS21.

One caveat is to make sure that your lug bolts are no0t too long. You can cut them, too.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Have you also got a hub cap solution so it looks original?

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Yes, because the old style DS21 hub caps from the mid 1960s are a perfect fit. So are the 19780 SM hubcaps.

Plus I can install the Traction wheel covers if I screwed them onto a set of hub cap beauty ringds, but that's more trouble than it's worth.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Excellent - perhaps this could be a nice little ebay sideline?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

My recollection is that some cars came both ways - BMW E23 for example came with metric rims on the 745 and SAE rims on the other cars. I think that the wheels are interchangeable without making adapters but I'm not sure. I don't think the hubs were different.

hat may be true for the BMW cars but not for Citroen

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Could you post larger photos? Hard to see the thumbnails.

Strelnik- do you have the dimensions for the adapter? I’m looking at having more of these made.

Also, how did this work with the VW wheels? Any issues?