DrDiff reminded me to check the pinion angle after changing the height, and to my surprise it looks like I will be fine with use of a simple shim. I assembled everything with a 4 degree shim in place, because I was concerned that the upper mounting position would rotate the pinion too far up. However, I hadn't considered that in lowering the rear of the car, that was improving the down angle of the transmission output. Currently the car has the trans output at 4 degree down, and the pinion is 2 degree down, and I am considering changing the shim to a 2 degree shim but I think I will try it as is for now.

In conclusion, this approach allows a 5"Bs wheel to be easily used on an E-body without use of any cutting or welding. The only consequence is that the ride height will need to change some.

Two other interesting tidbit is the weight of the rims. The original AR TT-II rim in 15 X 8 with 4.5" BS weighed 16lbs. The custom 15 X 8 5" BS rim weighed close to 18lbs. This was more than I expected, but I certainly want a nice strong weld between the two halves. In addition, I didn't know up front that AR was not going to dress the weld in any way. At first, I was sort of upset by this, but with the wheels on the car, I can't really see the weld from the outside.