Someone...stole...your stock rims...

and got caught? what an idiot. he deserves to be caught.

Anyway, that's a pretty darn good price. I'd say get the rims on and then lower. It definetly won't rub and you should lower like 1.5" or 2" and it'll look fine. I still have like a 2 finger wheel gap with the 18's and lowered 1.5".

My friend with a prelude got some eibachs and lowered it and then put 18's, but it started to rub and between the rims and springs, he chose to ditch the springs and get new ones. So you're going on the right track because you can always take the spring back, but if the rims don't look right, they rub due to the car being low, etc., then you can't do much about them.