I've seen a set of wheels I think would look amazing on the Fabia but they are Merc fitment 17x8.5J and about ET38. Presuming they'll need adapters of at least 15mm that takes ET down to 23mm. Anyone have a definite idea on whether they'll go on without lots of scrubbing. Either 17x205x40 (which would be quite stretched)or 17x215x40 tyres I suppose. I'm not on coilovers just now but would be putting some on at the same time as the wheels to make it look right.

Any thoughts.

They will be fine on the rear at that final et but i suspect youll run into issues on the front

Hmmm. Do you think it will be on the arches that I'll have issues? I could probably get a bit milled off the inside to help out. It's a nightmare. I know they would look epic but I just can't be arsed with the hassle of needing arches rolled and so on. A bit more thinking needed I suspect.

As you say, you'll need to be careful with your choice of front adapters to ensure a flush fit and to minimise arch issues. - get the figures on the wheel choice calculator to see how you're looking.

The twists on mine are 7j front ET55 with 35mm hub adapters, rears are 8.5j ET50 with 20mm adapters, both with 205 tyres.

Maybe I'm becoming a wuss in my old age, but I don't know if i'd put a 205 on an 8.5J front wheel due to the extra stress (over the rears) that it endures when driving a fwd fabia :S Depending on how close the front wheels may be, you may not have a choice

Either way, get the wheels and make them fit! At least it'll be another car not on 17' Spiders :p

My old wheels were ET25, but 7J, and no spacers. They were close to the edge, so I imagine this planned setup is probably going to extend an extra 3/4" or so further still (based on 1.5" wider alloy divided by 2, same offset). Likely MOT failure for arch protrusion I reckon.

(appreciate not best visual idea with it in "ramp" mode but only pic I really have....)

It's not looking particularly promising. I might have to photoshop them onto the car and see if it'll look that good anyway. By the sounds of it I'll need to either get them welded and redrilled or machine a fair chunk out of the back of them.

They would be near identical to my stance above, if they were already in 5x100 bolt pattern. Shame that.