18's - dont let their beauty fool you

So a lot has happened since my last post:

I bought tires - 215/35-18 Kumho Ecsta AST tires

I got them mounted at Walmart and there is where the problems began. The technician waved me over and found 2 small bends on the inside barrel of the passenger wheels...crap. I got the tires mounted and loaded up in the truck. I was determined to get these things on and at least see what they looked like. Here's what the final product was:

The look was exactly what I wanted - sporty, classic, low, and clean! So time for a test drive. Then I quickly began to see the error of my ways. Sidewall is impossibly thin and translates to granite-like ride. I was expecting more performance due to the large wheel/short sidewall ratio, but what I got was a mess.  Turns out, the overall diameter is about 1" larger than stock, so a small gap between the top of the tire and fenders becomes even more so. This effectively changes the final drive and makes the car feel sluggish on acceleration. The weight with wheels and tires is a hefty 39.8 lbs and this isn't doing any favors for the underpowered Fitty. On top of all this, the rubbing on the front fenders was unbearable. Over every small bump was the rubber-meets-plastic grind. I thought I could correct some of this, and did, but it still wasnt enough to dial it out completely. Hitting bumps at speed caused both a cringe and a hard hit to the vertebrae. Consider me unimpressed and depressed at the same time.....To add insult to injury, after 2 days I already had a flat tire on the driver front......