vortexblue

tint, wheels, lowered, stereo = pretty much done.

I hope to have all the stuff ready to go by the time I recieve the car. I'll take it apart and do the timing belt, waterpump, tranny fluid, suspension, and headlights in the week or so before we sell the NewBeetle.

I'll deal with the Bose Concert later.

BoneDaddy

first off welcome, blah blah blah.

but that airport is a major pain, none of the staff know where anything is, you have to go back through security if you're just changing flights, and everything is spread too far out... but I guess it's nice if it's your destination or departure point, as traffic seems kinda low.

saabSean

Low miles, too. It looks like your info display is in good shape. Nice color... looks like mine unless the pix are misleading.

There's lots you can do with the Avant, but unless you strap on a supercharger it's not going anywhere quickly.

Nice ride. WELCOME!

Grapeking

hey there - welcome! Love the blue tape -reminds me of the kid who drove the A4 cross country.

vortexblue

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<IMG SRC="http://rsjparts.com/chris/kart/kart1.bmp">


I was always mucking about on the 1.8T on her NB trying to make it faster... but in the end, we need a reliable cruiser.

So the 2.8L was chosen, not chanced upon.

In other news, early/ late 99? What's the tell tale?

vortexblue

Will it tuck under?

A search revealed that the 18x8.5" 35et should be ok on the front.

BoneDaddy

<a href="http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2918517" target="_blank">clicky</a>

BoneDaddy

I give you kudos for not wanting 19's or bigger, but the general feeling around here is use the same size front and rear, as it's a 50/50 power distribution front to rear on our cars, meaning it'll put undue strain on the center diff (TORSEN), plus it also makes rotating your tires kinda not possible as you don't want to switch sides of the tires with these cars (I never researched as to why, even when using symmetrical tires), thus if you rotate, you end up with wheels that will assuredly rub on the front. outside of aesthetics, there's no real reason to put that wide of a tire on a 2.8 avant anyway, I have 8" wide wheels on my 4.2 and have never spun them, though I do plan to go to 8.5 because I have had one time that I've skidded a tiny bit under heavy braking.

vortexblue

I've read a bit about the issues with staggered wheels... and I know most folks hate them.

These wheels would be *only* chosen for their looks. I do not expect to make the car a canyon carver-- it's a boulevard cruiser. We're sticking with 18's because I happen to have a set of 225/40/18 Michelin Pilot Sports here.

Staying with the same size tire all the way around- even on a .5" wider rear wheel- should give a very close overall diameter. Would even that little variation cause diff stress? If so, I may be able to counter it with 235's on the rear.

The issue is the width/ offset on the avant body. It's a lot of wheel to stuff under the back- and without the car handy, I can't measure.

BoneDaddy

I can't say on clearance, but in addition to contact area, you also have rotational mass to consider