Thanks for the pats on the back, guys. It's all my wife's fault, you know. But then she's pretty much responsible, in one way or another, for nearly everything that is good in my life.
Thanks for the curiousity about the wheels also. Some info from my blog entry, more photos there as well:
These are handbuilt custom wheels. Fronts are 15x7 and rears 15x8.
They have Pedrini centers grafted to what appear to be Enkei polished aluminum rims. I have never been crazy about Pedrinis, but I do have to say that the marriage of the centers painted plack and the polished rims looks great and near as I can tell are much lighter than they would seem. The 8 incher is about 5 pounds lighter than my 5.5 inch stock steel wheel. IIRC the steel wheel is only 1 pound heavier than a Fuchs wheel, so I figure I'm about 4 pounds apiece lighter with a lot more wheel to show for it.
When the guy who built these wheels put them together, he opted for a very deep offset necessitating a 1 inch spacer to clear the inner fender well at the rear. These shots are made of the car with the wheels and spacers on just to get some fitment ideas. It is very apparent that I will have to flare the car to use the 8 inch rim on the rear. As I was planning on flares eventually, I'm glad I picked these up.
One of these shots shows the inside weld. The guy did good work.