Need help/advise on how to best get my wheels to work on my MK3 Jetta

[BooglesMcGee]

I have a set of ESM 009 type a replicas in 15x8 with an offset of 10. The tires I have are Nitto neo gen 205/50/15. My question is, what would be the best way to get these to work on my car? I'm going to have them on with some raceland coils, and I want to bring it down about an inch to an inch and a half from stock ride height. Am I in way over my head with this setup, or do you think I can pull it off with rolling and pulling the fenders and some fender flares? Or should I try to sell the tires that I have (brand new, never mounted) and get some 195/50/15 tires and stretch them? I want to keep the overall outer diameter as close to stock as possible. Anyway, here are some pics from the test fit I did on the front, haven't tested the back yet.



View from straight above:


The tires on them now are 195/45/15 yokohama s drives that are shot, so not going to run with them. Any help would be appreciated.

[87vr6]

Those pictures are with 195 width tires? lol. You should have researched before you bought. You're not going to make those "work" and by "work" i mean look halfway decent.

[BooglesMcGee]

Those pictures are with 195 width tires? lol. You should have researched before you bought. You're not going to make those "work" and by "work" i mean look halfway decent.

Thanks for the negativity, does anyone have anything constructive or helpful to say?


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[VWGTI4fun]

You are going to have to roll the fenders
I'm running 15x7 with 35mm offset (borbet type C)
205 section width tires and they barely clear the fender on the front.
A 15x8 rim with 10mm offset will be sticking out about an inch and half further.
Around here some shops will roll the fenders for as little as $60
maybe you can find something affordable, like that.

[IMG][/IMG]

[87vr6]

Thanks for the negativity, does anyone have anything constructive or helpful to say?


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sorry if the truth hurts. You literally need to have sheet metal extended flares. Simply rolling them will not make them fit any better. You need wider fenders. Is that constructive enough?

[BooglesMcGee]

sorry if the truth hurts. You literally need to have sheet metal extended flares. Simply rolling them will not make them fit any better. You need wider fenders. Is that constructive enough?

Sorry, I was in a bad mood at the time, didn't mean to lash out at ya. Do you think it would be possible to get a second set of fenders, cut the metal out around the arches, and weld them to my existing fenders? Or maybe instead of folding the lip inward (the part that gets rolled up inside when rolling) maybe place cuts every inch or two and folding them outward, thus extending the arch, and then attaching fender flares to that? I think that would be the cheapest route, as I'm already into this for a bit of money, and want to throw as little at it as possible to try to make it work. If worst comes to worst, I may just try selling the wheels I have and get some 15x8 with a less aggressive offset.

And VWGTI4fun, I plan on rolling the fenders. I have a friend that has access to one and he said he will do it for me. I'm going to try to get ahold of him on Friday and see what he thinks.

[87vr6]

I may just try selling the wheels I have and get some 15x8 with a less aggressive offset.

I would do this. I know you said you were in for quite a bit of money, but to extend the fenders, which is done pretty much by the method you described is going to cost a pretty penny... Unless you're doing it yourself, but if not, expect 1000's... I inquired about a while ago to a shop that does phenomenal work (Ryan Miller in PA) and 3 years ago it was 2500...

Compare this:


To a stock MK4 jetta:



Excellent work is pricey. Find new wheels, sell those, if they're 4x100 plenty of E30 BMW owners would like them

[BooglesMcGee]

Thanks for the help and the info on where to look to sell these, but do you think that my cut/fold out method has a chance of working?

[87vr6]

Well, kinda. Depends on how detail oriented you are. That is actually how people do MK2 fenders, they cut some of the arch out and put the G60 fender flares on.


There really aren't comparable products on the market like that for a MK3 though.. I have seen some, like Kamei used to make some back in the day, but I can't speak for how wide they are. I know some of the european MK3s had textured fender flares installed, so if you can find some of those, they might do the trick.

But you don't want to fold over the cut metal, just cut it out entirely.

The euro/jap market fender flares:

RHD MK3 Cabriolet by volksron, on Flickr


What I'm talking about with the fender itself:





See how a section is cut out completely? That's for wheel clearance... Here's a stock one without modification:

[BooglesMcGee]

The reason I was thinking about folding the cut metal out was so that it would extend the available metal to attach the fender flares with 3M automotive 2-sided tape. I was thinking putting the top of the flares roughly about 5mm from where it's folded out, although that would make the arch lower, but that may be beneficial because I want to close up the wheel gap but don't want to slam it or tuck it. I'm getting coils installed soon, and plan on coming down about an inch or 2. Here's the flares I'm thinking about:
http://store.blackforestindustries.com/mk3tefl63.html

This would be done in addition to rolling/pulling the fenders, BTW