I was able to get a lot of stuff done on the truck this weekend. The 12-bolt was torn down and sent over to a buddy's shop (RJ Fabrication, on the web as
www.rjfabrication.com) to have the housing narrowed 1.5" on each side. Rob and I trade work between each other, and he owed me for a bunch of wiring work I did for him a while back.
So, while the rear end is being worked on, I spent the time doing a lot of cleaning, sandblasting, and painting. The driveshafts have been rebuilt with new yokes and u-joints. They have been blasted and painted with black primer, and I'll hit them with chassis black right before I install them for the last time.
I had to build shims for the front motor mount stands because I used the ones from the '79 Suburban. I whipped them out of 3/8" aluminum plate. Also, because I wanted to get the engine perfectly level, I had to build shims for the trans crossmember. I wound up using a trans crossmember from a '70 Camaro because I had on laying around. I am a stickler for having the right pinion angle, so I even made a 3/8" shim for the carrier bearing to get all the angles right.
While the rear end was out, I had to put the new wheel and tire in the opening to see how it was going to look. I am VERY happy with the results:
For those keeping score at home, the wheel is an ET II ('60s vintage) in 15x8.5 with a 3.0" backspace, and the tire is a BFG Long Trail Touring in 265/70-15. Fifteen inch tires are becoming increasingly more difficult to find in the larger sizes, and I had a heck of a time finding one that would give me the height and width I needed and still be an easily accessible tire to find if I needed to replace it.
The next step is to get the exhaust up and situated while the rear end is out, paint the center of the frame, mock-up the master cylinder/booster and build brake lines, finish mounting the column and build the intermediate shaft, rebuild the steering linkage, replace the rear coil spring cups, paint the rear axle housing, and install the rear suspension for the last time. I want to get the suspension finished because I'm dying to get started on the motor and the exterior. You're going to flip when you see what we've got planned for the exterior.