Yes I was hoping to keep the original forks as personally I don't find anything wrong with them, sounds like this could get expensive!
There's a saying, "the best you've had is the best you know".
It's very true of many things but on bikes, especially so of suspension. Until you've ridden a Gen 1 with decent fork mods and a better shock, you have little idea of what you're missing in terms of handling, road-holding and ride quality.
Given a choice between dropping time and several hundred pounds into fitting 5-spoke wheels for cosmetic reasons versus putting that into improving the suspension, I know where my cash would go.