We are all glad you are still here. I don't frequent as often as I should after I joined Facebook, but this forum is still easier to search for help on a specific topic!
I've had 17x8 on my gen one with a 235/45 tire, but when I went to a 245 I had to roll the rear fenders. I don't know of anyone going wider that 8" or 235 without problems. Your car is far to nice to roll fenders on, I would stick to a 17x7.5 and 225/45 just to be safe. Of course, the offset...
If a corner of the subframe is cracked and rusted away, there is no way to make it safe unless you swap a new one in. How is the rest of the car? How is the unibody where the subframe mounts? Pictures would be helpful. I just scrapped a car for this reason.
I think I had to use Kawasaki shims when I put stage 1 cams in my 89
To answer the OP, I usually find 1 or 2 out of spec when I check. I recently swapped 3.0 cams into 3.2 heads and I changed 3 of them, not because they were out of spec, but because they weren't in the middle of the spec like...