Help please with spare wheel carrier

[Paul H]

Hi all

I have a 1985 S3 and the spare wheel fits tight against the body, so it scuffs the paintwork and I can't fit the 2 inner fasteners of the boot cover when the wheel is on.

I want to be able to make it stand off the body by a couple of inches.

I know that CC do a Y shaped extender, but the problem is that the bolt going through the body is not centred on the wheel centre (it is about 70mm low) so the CC part will not fit.

Anyone got any ideas on the best solution?

[Paul Richards]

To accommodate do different sized wheels I have made a short piece of flat bar about 3 inches long with a tapped hole at one end and a slotted hole along the remainder. The bar is fastened to the rear of the car by a bolt through the slot and this enables the tapped hole to be raised (or lowered) to an appropriate level and the securing bolt fastened in it. Obviously the bar has to be thick enough to tap and the securing bolt just long enough so as not to protrude through the bar. Latter can be achieved by spacing with washers. Hope you can understand. I would post a picture but nowhere near the car for a while.

It saves having to pack out the carrier with foam or similar.