Over the last couple years a trend has emerged not just amongst the Euro scene but also pretty much every other car scene around.  If you have gone to any car show recently you may have seen a few cars that have very wide steel wheels, aka widened steelies.

So where are people getting these?

Widened steelies are 100% custom made.  It is best to have an experienced wheel shop make them for you.  You don’t really want to cheap out on getting these made since the last thing you would want to have happen is the wheels breaking apart and thus causing a nasty accident.  Don’t worry though as it is not very expensive to have them made.

How are they made?

It’s a very simple concept.  Unless you have a lot of welding experience we do NOT recommend you trying this yourself.  This process mentioned next is simplified.  We do not go into the type of welding necessary, and tools needed to properly cut the wheel.  First off you need to find yourself a set of steel wheels that you like.  The most popular sizing is between 13″ – 15″.  Next up the wheel shop will cut the wheel barrel in two and weld in a new piece of metal between the two.  This will take your skinny stock steelies and make them much wider.

Now you are probably wondering where exactly can you score yourself a set of widened steelies.  First place to properly look is locally.  Most major cities have wheel shops and/or machine shops.  If you can’t locate a local shop or the local shop does not want to make them for you the next place to look is online.

Here are a couple companies that you can purchase widened steelies from (DitB does not have any experience with any of the following):

http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/drwcustom.html http://www.stocktonwheel.com/

For reference: More info on widened steelies from the DitB forums

The below Volkswagen has 17″ x 8″ Diamond Racing Widened Steelies.  While they are cheap they also have a tendency to bend easily.

The Volkswagen below has widened VW Corrado steelies.  They look to be 15″ x 8″

The Volkswagen below has what seems to be widened VW Beetle steelies