As to the body css: You shouldn't really set a width (other than 100%) on the body tag. The body is the background where everything else is sitting on top of, so giving the body just a colour and say nothing about the width is perfectly ok.
If you want your CONTENT to appear within a certain width, make a wrapper inside the body tags and set a width on that instead.
Regarding positioning: If you have position absolute on something, and no top/ bottom /left or right defined, the object with the absolute positioning will end up in the top left corner of your screen. If the wrapper has a relative positioning, the absolute will be in the top left corner inside the wrapper. But you can move the absolute thingie around by setting things like top: 200px; left 20px; (20px in from the left and 200px down from the top), or bottom: 0; right: 0; (bottom right corner.), or something like that.
I don't know what would be the best background for displaying pinstriping work, but definitely just a colour, no background graphic that takes the attention off from the displayed work. You should use a colour that lets the work stand out without being obtrusive.
And one more thing: You have my mail address. And you may perhaps have seen in the 'Break room' my post about Google trouble. So please don't try contacting me that way the next couple of days, as I won't get it.