Building and wheels things I don't know

Hey, I'm building a beater type thing up from the frame.. well I intend to get wheels built for me and assemble parts like the lazy man I am.
I'm unsure of a couple of things though.
Framewise, I'm told I need the bb shell re-tapping on one side. It's italian sized.. any idea where would do this. My local shop had no idea, possibly Bob J over in Leeds. Is it really such a specialist tool?

Also, the rear axel spacing is 128. will this be ok to squeeze into a 120mm hub?

And finally wheels. I know not much here too. I'm after something that will last day in day out but also not look too shabby, maybe semi aero but cba with deep v things. I was thinking mavic for the quality and cxp23 for the look..
My lbs does rigida and showed me spyders but they are angular and I have mixed experience with Rigida. I went through a rear rim on a geared hybrid in 2 years and there were multiple truing issues on them to begin with on the Dawes. The front has been bullet proof for 5 years though.
I'm on alex stock rims on my other bike, so I was thinking dp18.. worth my cash?

Other than that ,it's going well, I have a frame with internal rear cable housing to hide my lack of balls when riding ss! and I have a shiny fork and a brandnew headset.

K

Yeah, I think the tool is quite expensive because/and there are not many italian threaded bb on the road, so not many places have one. I'd call around, a specialist frame maker (e.g. Bob Jackson) should be able to do it for you. Otherwise I think De Rosas still use Italian BB regularly, so a De Rosa dealer may well have the tool.

Re dropout spacing, is your frame steel? If so, I think it would be fine as it is. But you can always ask the shop doing the tapping to reset the dropouts, it would be an easy job for them. If alu (I'm assuming you're not using carbon or ti for a beater!) I'd be a bit more nervous and I think you'd be pushing it a bit.

Rims - I can highly recommend Ambrosio rims, their Excursion/Evolution (same rim section, just that the Evo has a machined braking surface) are robust, cheap and very good quality. I've also still got a pair of cxp21s that are beaten but still going strong on an older bike of mine, have never needed truing.

thanks, i found this useful too!