Howdy All - Been a while but I have made some minor progress. New springs are in front & rear and the Dana 80HD axle is now hung. Added a 3 degree wedge to try and get the drive angle close but won't really know until I start putting the driveshaft together. Also gathered up 6 new 19.5" rims and tires to go all around. Had to make adapters so that the front rims would fit, but that was easy enough.
I gave up on pickling the cold-rolled steel with acid. Every time I'd paint some on, the wind would change. Not pleasant stuff to breathe so I broke down and had the remaining body panels sand blasted and primed. I just applied a couple of coats of latex paint with 25% of the HyTech ceramic beads on both sides of the interior panels to help with insulation. They will also get a layer of the silver "bubble wrap" insulation as well. The outer panels will get two coats but only on the inside surface.
Still have not stabbed the engine and tranny in but I have added an aluminum accessory bracket to handle mounting an A/C compressor and relocate the new alternater. A 250 amp monster that should handle just about anything I want to run off of it. It also relocates the water inlet & outlet. Still having fits locating a driveline brake that will fit my Allison 2200MH trans so if anyone has one laying around...?
I hope to have the front disk brake kit from Randy Domeck in the next week or so. Once that kit is installed at least I'll be able to take it off the jackstands for the first time in many months.
There are some updated pix in my Flickr album here
