UncleMaz

I will save our fellow RL'ers the agony . I know the following are 5x100 (I have a 4x100 Mk1 Cabby)

77tony

Never liked phone dials, until now. Rims look superb. T

hacker-pschorr

Looking at those VW photos I'm may have to put the custom widened 16" phone-dials that came with my 79 on the wife's 86 Scirocco 16V.

Hilton

Those do look awesome.

I've only ever seen the dish wheels used (there's a local Mk3 golf with them on).

hernanca

It might be too early to do so, but it seems to me that at some point the following should also be considered:

1) The 3D shape of the Phone Dial design - that is, it is not just a simple spoke. This gives some added thickness that must be included in the design. Though much of that thickness may go outward, for those lovely protruding ovals, too much of an ET could also cause a protrusion beyond (or a close proximity to) the face of the rim, which I do not like for the 928 application, though it does look pretty cool on a Mini Cooper (pic below).



2) The outward protrusion of our front brake calipers (especially S4 or GTS fronts). Probably best to design for the ones that protrude the most - I am guessing the GTS fronts. (Edit: though, certainly, spacers could address this after the fact, as well.)

The diagram below references the brake protrusion with label "D":



Maybe this "D" dimension is why Porsche prohibited combining the 928 Phone Dials with the S4 brakes? According to Dave Roberts 928 Specialists site, both the 928 phone dials and the 928 flat disc wheels were 7x16 ET65, and those flat discs were available all the way up to 1989, but only the (928) Phone Dials are prohibited from being combined with the S4 brakes.

While looking for diagrams, I also came accross this site, in case no one else has:

http://www.splitrims.com/pages/information.html

As an aside, I was a bit puzzled about the stepped rim on the early 944 Phone Dials. Why can the 944 Turbo Phone Dials in early offset (8Jx16 23.x mm, up through 1986) have that stepped rim while late offset (8Jx16 53.x mm, 1987+) do not? Here is what I found. Please keep in mind that these are rough measurments (tire was in the way at times, "straight edge" was subjective/eyeballed), but even so, the differences come out, as I quadruple checked them!

944 Phone Dial Differences:

....................................Early 944 Turbo...................Late 944 Turbo

"Oval" holes......................100x80 mm.......................110x87.5 mm

Oval holes circle...................355 mm.............................360mm
(outermost diameter)

Stud holes (diam.)..................44 mm..............................47mm

Spokes (between holes)........"hollow" back...................solid back

Protrusion of design...............31 mm.............................46 mm
outward from
back ("bottom") of rim.

This is interesting and to the topic, as it appears that Porsche stretched the design some themselves! It is also what seems to allow for the stepped rim design in the early 944 Phone Dials vs. the Late 944 Phone Dials.

I don't have any 928 Phone Dials that I can measure against, but would be interested in seeing this information for them as well.

And, FWIW, I believe the stepped rim design counters the "pimpin style"! (Stepped seems more reminiscent of early Porsche racing wheels or 60's Hot Rod wheels.)

And, finally, Jim, I would be interested in buying such wheels if they look like Phone Dials, and the offsets are configurable (that is, 3-piece rims). The old Hot Rodder in me is interested in having more lip than we typically see on our fronts (even if I have to modify the front fenders to achieve it..). I would of course prefer the stepped rim design, but 18 inch Phone Dials might turn out so cool that it would not matter!

Jadz928

Alright, I did some rough scalling to 18" and the model flowed well.

The following rendering uses 18"x8.5" ET70 front (middle) and 18"x10 ET47 rear (right).
This is to give you all an idea what the front spacing might look like.
The shape of everything requires more refinement.



Right now, I'm focussing on a 3-piece design for prototype modularity.

Carlos,
All very good stuff. I'm still applying broad brush strokes, but we will nail down those details once we've acheive a higher level of feasilbility. Thanks!

tv

I think those look great and would be awesome in 18 on a 928 today. The first 928 I had a ride in had the originals back in 82. These were as cool to 928's as the the deep concaves were to countachs. A signature wheel and would do a lot to add to 928's in general.

Is that complex shape only possible by forging/casting? It does not look like something that could be machined away from a block.

Can anyone pshop that exact rendering above onto a nice 928 photo in the 18 inch size?

Jadz928

The depth of the front face of th design is surprisingly shallow at under 2". Overall depth is way under 3".
So using a 3" deep forged "blank" to machine from is feasible.

You will hear more about the manufacturer shortly once we've ironed out feasibility.

I'd like to do this, and should be able to when ready.
I would like to use the car of my "silent patron" as it is this person's expectations which are most important in the near-term.

So, you can expect to see something coming...

borland

What tire sizes are you considering for fitment?

Here's what I worked up using the wheel/tire calculator, comparing GTS tire sizes with proposed rim sizes. For the front...



Seems like 8x18ET70 might be better fit for front.

And on the rear....



Tires are available in these sizes, but could be expensive.

Dougs951

Any thought of doing 944 spec offsets?

Herman K

Nice calculator... is there a working copy available?

borland

here.... http://www.rimsntires.com/rt_specs.jsp

White Lightnin'

Always liked the 'flat' phone dial look better than the 'popped blisters' phone dial...

Like this set for sale on CL:

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/pts/2086635815.html

Jadz928

You bet!

Please X-post if you feel so inclined, thanks.

xschop

Nice. How much will the 18's weigh?
I like the Corvette method 18's on back and 17's up front