early 16 inch 356 steel wheels

Mike Smith · Post by **Mike Smith** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:55 pm

Real 550 wheels were composite - Alli Rim rivetted to Steel centres

16" Rims were fitted to all 356`s until 56

Make sure you can get a decent quality 16" tyre before doing too much work or spending too much money

Mike at PR

Sundance4 · Post by **Sundance4** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:18 pm

Sounds good!,there is a rolling chassis with 912 motor and part finished alloy bodywork 550 just down the road from me too![/quote]

any more info ...sounds interesting

Sundance4 · Post by **Sundance4** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:51 am

It also had a 1720 912 fitted (no carbs or fanshroud) with correct factory exhaust. The ally rear panels and front wings all done, ally doors hung but with a fair amount of ally corrosion around the bare rivets, no hood, screen or electrics. Heavily lowered with satin black '55 rims off my old coupe and polished B drums on type 1 axles but no interior at all not even the steering column... I wonder?

[/quote]

got any pictures?

Sundance4 · Post by **Sundance4** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:54 am

UUL442 wrote:Real 550 wheels were composite - Alli Rim rivetted to Steel centres

16" Rims were fitted to all 356`s until 56

Make sure you can get a decent quality 16" tyre before doing too much work or spending too much money

Mike at PR

Excellent... thanks Mike........making some progress at last.

Is it a problem getting 16" wheels then.

cubist · Post by **cubist** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:12 am

I've got prints of the 550 from years ago somewhere... i tracked two 356 16" from ebay.fatherland without too much hassle and only paid £150 for the pair delivered. Might be worth a search?

Sundance4 · Post by **Sundance4** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:14 pm

cubist wrote:I've got prints of the 550 from years ago somewhere... i tracked two 356 16" from ebay.fatherland without too much hassle and only paid £150 for the pair delivered. Might be worth a search?

what 'prints' do you have?

I would really like detailes of tube wall thickness among other things.

I will post some pictures as soon as I've worked out how

LGK6D · Post by **LGK6D** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:08 pm

As Mike says, you couldn't get a decent set of tyres for the 16 inch wheels. The only thing available was the 'Avon Tourists' which is what the Split Bug guy's use which are very skinny (for a 3.25 rim I think).

More recently Avon have brought out a 165HR16 Turbosteel tyre. You can buy them from www.longstonetyres.co.uk but they are £115 each plus VAT. If they're anything like the Avon CR6ZZ tyres they'll be well worth the money.

Sundance4 · Post by **Sundance4** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:34 am

Poorboy wrote:As Mike says, you couldn't get a decent set of tyres for the 16 inch wheels. The only thing available was the 'Avon Tourists' which is what the Split Bug guy's use which are very skinny (for a 3.25 rim I think).

More recently Avon have brought out a 165HR16 Turbosteel tyre. You can buy them from www.longstonetyres.co.uk but they are £115 each plus VAT. If they're anything like the Avon CR6ZZ tyres they'll be well worth the money.

550 s had 16" wheels that were 5" and 5.25" wide.

Are the problems finding tyres related to only narror rims or anything 16" in diameter?

cubist · Post by **cubist** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:47 am

There are plenty of 16" tyres but very few with the right profile in thinner widths. I've got Turbosteels and they are great but still a little tall for my liking.