I'm assuming that all Mercedes rims are positive offset. In the oldl days rear wheel drive cars were typically negative and front wheel drive cars were positive since they were trying to make room everywhere they could, and suspension geometry is easier to work out with positive offsets. I had been assuming in my search for wheels that the offsets were negative, but now I'm thinking that they aren't. I've had the wheels off of my 84 300D to do brakes, and I think that I remember that the back of the wheel has a huge cavity. So when I look for rims, I could actually get a numerically higher offset if I were willing to use spacers? I had been thinking the other way around. Please tell me if I have confused myself. It woudn't be the first time.
Basically I think that stock on my car is 14X6 with a 35mm offset. So if I went to a 15X6.5 with a 44 m offset, I'd think that the wheel would stick out an additional 9mm plus half of the half inch(6.5mm) for a total of 15.5 mm towards the center of the car. It would also move in about 3 mm on the outside of the car. I wonder if that 15.5 mm would cause trouble. I'd be comfortable with a 5 mm spacer, but not much more than that.
Is my reasoning straight?