2 piece wheels with flipped centers.... safe ????

So I was watching the Tube of Us and came across a video for DIY custom wheels.

The guy took a cheap 2 piece high positive offset wheel, unbolted the center, flipped it over and bolted it back on to get a 16 X 8 et-98 (super hight negative offset) with about 2mm back space.

Is this thing going to be safe ?

I am now thinking this, if safe, could be the solution I need with out high buk custom wheels. I need high neg offset and almost all affordable stuff of that type is ugly truck stuff, which would not look right on my car.

With -90 I could even loose the spacers.

What I am running now, 15s rear, and 14s front, and I just paid way to much to retire with 80s design and tech tires. Note, tire in the pic was both of these and manufacture also....

If this mod is safe, I will start keeping and eye out know for the next retire episode.

The wheel itself is safe enough, but the effect on steering if you put it on the front is going to be unpleasant at best. It'll work fine on the back.

It'll be as safe as any "reverse" wheels are. Millions have been sold....

That said, here is what happens.

Draw an imaginary line through the middle of your ball joints, that line should intersect with the ground in the ~middle of the tire tread.

  See "Scrub Radius"

In reply to bentwrench :

Didn't really notice putting 1" spacers on my VW, which combined with a wheel change, changed the offset by roughly 30mm, while keeping the tire size the same.

It looked beefy, at least. 

The first questions that come to mind are:

Are the original mating surface and the reverse side mating surface identical?

Is the mounting hardware's clamping force changed by the reversal?

Was the wheel designed to be reversed?

Is the resulting offset within the design specs?

In reply to bentwrench and Turnerx19:

My scrub radius is already toast, due to the spacers and the current wheels. The only way to fix that with out major chassis mods would put the wheels way to inboard for the body.  This is an issue with most beetle based kit cars. 

My goal is modern rubber and room for a brake upgrade in the future. 

I would like to keep the current widths or stay close, to do so, I need to match the current backspace/offset. Finding decent looking, reasonably priced, matching offset/backspace to what I have now wheels has been a challenge. 

The pic attached above is one of the 15 inch rears I have now, it is a fake 2 piece. I am looking for some 17s, 8.5 or 9 wide for the rear and 17×7 for the front. I dont recall the offsets exactly,- 30 maybe, back space was 3.5 and 3.875.  

L5: I had some of the same thoughts...

There is the vid for those interested. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDs7kDNNlU

I did something much more sketchy with great results for my Gambler 500 Corolla build. I thrashed it for 500 miles and was expecting to lose a wheel, but everything turned it great!

In reply to 2002maniac :

How in Valhalla did I miss this build! Is there a thread for it anywhere?

In reply to captainawesome :

Exactly. Pics, please? 

In reply to 2002maniac :

I wanted to cut out some centers and weld them into some 15x10 wide-5 wheels. Unfortunately the center drop sections are different diameters, so it won't be that easy.

In reply to captainawesome :

I have neglected to post a build thread on the car.  I really need to start a thread for all my Gambler adventures!

2002maniac said:

In reply to captainawesome :

I have neglected to post a build thread on the car.  I really need to start a thread for all my Gambler adventures!

Today would be great. No need to prolong the inevitable. Now seems like a good time. Maybe get on with it before the end of the day.

In reply to 2002maniac :

That is sketchy AF. But I like it, for gambler only, but I like it.