[Mustard72]

Also got the "new" roller, as promised, on Monday. They included a core support with the deal, as well, mostly because I think they just might not have wanted to remove it. It's in better shape than the original one from Mustard, with only rot on the inner fender connection flange under the battery tray. It's a GMC version, though, which I think is only different because of the headlight mounts, which I think I can just swap around. Drill out the spot welds and either weld or bolt the chevy one to the GMC core support. I might have to have the front clip somewhat assembled to do this to make sure it goes back together with the proper alignment. Anybody have any input on this?

I now have the rear axle removed and am working on replacing the midship cross member. The new roller has the larger midship bearing, and the driveshaft that was included is basically junk. The one from Mustard was just all rebuild a couple of years ago and is essentially new, so I'll reuse that one and it appears to be a different cross member. So I'll yank the one off of the old Mustard frame. The front cab mounts look better on Mustard, as well. The rear axle on the new frame is a Dana 60 with 4.10 gears, which are much better for what we're planning with Mustard than the 4.57's in the Eaton, I think.

The leaf spring frames (which the "new" frame is) don't have the cladding on the inside of the frame rails above the rear axles like the coil spring frames. This appears to be much less problematic from a corrosion standpoint. The "new" frame has some rust issues, as it turns out, but nothing like the original coil spring frame.