Fuchs education Options

[Cal]

I'm considering doing a 5-lug conversation to my '74 2.0L using Eric Shea's kit from PMB. I'd prefer this option because I can easily convert it back to the 4-lug if needed. There are a number of replica Fuchs available from Maxilite that look pretty good....15x6 (deep 6), 15x7R and the standard 15x7. The offsets on each of these wheels is different ET36, ET47 & ET23.3.....are there advantages/disadvantages with each? What would be the safest tire width that could be run on each of these wheels without modifying the bodywork on the car.....would 195/65/15 be a safe bet? The photo below would be the ideal look that I'm looking for....15x7 with the RS or RSR finish. I'm open for suggestions / opinions.

[Unobtanium-inc]

People are paying for FUCHS? Why didn't anyone tell me?

[ri914]

People are paying for FUCHS? Why didn't anyone tell me?

I hope that is a secret hiding location and not a real dumpster (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[mepstein]

Harvey widened a set of deep 6's for my car. Unfortunately they did not work out for me but they were beautiful wheels done to his extremely high standards. I ended up trading them to him for a matched set of stock deep 6's- of course they are prefect too.

Harvey does beautiful work, and restored the set of Fuchs currently on my car. I've spoken with him about his method of widening deep 6s into 7Rs, and he ably answered my questions re: the obvious: welding 50~ year old forged aluminum. The man knows his stuff, and it sounds like he can widen my existing wheels without having to refinish them.

Then again, selling my deep 6s and moving to replicas offers some financial upsides—and the cast wheels are new rather than forged but heat cycled for 50~ years. The hump I have to get over is whether I care about having real Fuchs on the car. It isn't an original 914-6, nor will it ever be. And for me, it's more about function than correctness.

And yet…

The nice thing about real Fuchs is they keep going up in value.

[73-914]

People are paying for FUCHS? Why didn't anyone tell me?

Perfect Picture

[Unobtanium-inc]

Harvey widened a set of deep 6's for my car. Unfortunately they did not work out for me but they were beautiful wheels done to his extremely high standards. I ended up trading them to him for a matched set of stock deep 6's- of course they are prefect too.

Harvey does beautiful work, and restored the set of Fuchs currently on my car. I've spoken with him about his method of widening deep 6s into 7Rs, and he ably answered my questions re: the obvious: welding 50~ year old forged aluminum. The man knows his stuff, and it sounds like he can widen my existing wheels without having to refinish them.

Then again, selling my deep 6s and moving to replicas offers some financial upsides—and the cast wheels are new rather than forged but heat cycled for 50~ years. The hump I have to get over is whether I care about having real Fuchs on the car. It isn't an original 914-6, nor will it ever be. And for me, it's more about function than correctness.

And yet…

The nice thing about real Fuchs is they keep going up in value.

I don't expect this to continue indefinitely, as better repro's hit the market it will bring prices down. It happened with 16" Pre-A 356 wheels. I was getting upwards of $1000 a wheel for old bent and rusty 16's, then three companies made repro's, now I get about $400 for originals. The market will fill the void created, it always does. Which is why I did not have any 16's when the market fell out and why I won't be holding any deep sixes when the market falls out of FUCHS world. Shipped out my last full set to a dealer in Canada this week.