Never-Again

Hi Gang,

New member here and I’m very excited about joining the Mercedes family.

Always wanted a Mercedes (like most people) and my dream has finally come true, but now I’m in need of some assistance.

I’m no stranger to wrenching on or restoring cars, nor am I a stranger to wrenching on German cars but all of this is brand new for me.

I picked up a 97 SL500 in really good condition, but the stock wheels are a bit pitted and I’ve been searching the internet for days trying to find some wheels that I think would look nice on the car.

She’s triple black and I’m a huge fan of center black mesh wheels with polished lips on black cars but I already have a set of those on my black 635 CSI.

I’ve narrowed it down to these guys right here, which are basically copies of the AC Schnitzer 5 spoke wheels:





The plan is to have the center spokes powder coated in gloss black (maybe). I’ll make up my mind for sure once I get the wheels and have had a chance to see them up against the car. I may just leave them alone.

The site selling these can also accommodate the 5x112 bolt pattern, so no worries there.

The problem is these only come in 9.5” front and 11” rear. The 11” wheels are fine out back and I’m absolutely positive that I won't have any issues with them.

My issue is putting 9.5” wide wheels on the front, even though the Mercedes wheel fitment website says they'll fit, my minds eye just can't see it.

I just can’t envision putting that wide of a wheel up front, and I’m really curious to know if any of you have ever done it with success.

I’m hoping that some of you “wheel experts” that are very familiar & experienced with these R129 cars can steer me in the right direction.

Also, I’ve scoured the internet trying to find pictures of what those 5 spoke wheels would look like on the car for reference, and I haven't found any, anywhere.

If any of you know of any pics of the 1990's R129 cars with the AC Schnitzer 5 spoke wheels on them, I’d love to be able to see a pic to get a better reference.


Thanks in advance.....

Here's what I got.......

Bobby204

Same here just got one. The front has a lot of fender, maybe it’ll fit. Also, what’s the max size up on stock rims? That might help.

Never-Again

I found this chart that gives the maximum sizes regarding what "should" and what "shouldn't" fit.....but the reason why I use the words "should" & "shouldn't" instead of "will" & "won't" is because once you start to read the dozens of posts from different people that have tried to put these larger size wheels on their cars, you quickly discover that this chart isn't exactly accurate.



What I mean by that is that a lot of people explain how the wider/larger wheels only fit comfortably on the wide fender, sports package cars, and not necessarily the stock R129's.

Of course I would have no way of confirming that - hence the reason for my post of asking to see pictures or hear back on how well the larger size wheels would fit.

Since this post however I've decided to back off of going that wide out of caution. Also, I don't want to spend huge dollars on wheels & tires only to mount them, and then find out that I need to roll fenders and all the other nonsense just to make them fit.

I decided to go with these......(which are 18x9 with a 17 offset for the front, and 18x10 with an offset of 15 for the rear)

Nine inch wide wheels up front should fit with no problems at all, and I'm 100% sure that the ten inch wide wheels out back won't have any issues.





If all of my research is correct, they should fit just fine.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do......