I am nearly in the same boat. Have my front clip off and have been measuring on the frame. Mine looks pretty level from side to side, but I still have some more measuring to do as far as confirming it is square.
If you look at them, from the front crossmember forward (the frame horns) don't have much support. The bumpers and bumper mounts are bolted to them pretty rigidly, so when the bumper takes a hit, I assume the frame horns bend pretty easily. I could eyeball where my right frame horn was bent to the right (outward) a bit, but none of the sheetmetal looked like it had ever been dented up.
All this to say I think the squareness of the front of the frame would be most important in the area between the front xmember and the trans xmember, as the frame horns don't make much difference except on how the bumper sits. At least that is my perspective.
I assume the No Limit front end requires you to box the frame, I found some boxing plates online, I may buy some to just save some time fabricating.
I am looking at Fatman's, their literature says if you don't mark your axle centerline, use the 1/2" hole on top of the frame. I've eyeballed mine and it looks to be at least an inch in front of the centerline. I'm going to ask them about that, maybe they use it in case someone never marked their centerline. I am going to drop a plumb bob down to the hole on top of the axle to spring mount that should be exactly the centerline.
I did pull the e-brake lever off the frame. Centerpunched the rivets, drilled an eighth inch pilot hole, then a 3/8 hole down to the frame. Then took an air hammer and cut the rivet heads off, then an air hammer with a punch and punched out the rivet body. It is nice to have two air hammers. That technique didn't work too badly, but I did have to grind a bit on one of them, so I will keep the 4.5" Milwaulkee grinder loaded with a flap wheel handy.
I am still wanting to make sure I have a square frame before sinking the money in the IFS. I wish I had the cab and bed off, but really don't have room in the shop. Do most people only square off the frame from the firewall forward?
Also, another question I have for Fatman is that I don't plan to have any rake in my truck, I wanted to leave it with zero degree rake as I believe that is close to stock. So right now I don't have any degree of rake on the jack stands, it is dead level front to back. I don't know if the anti-dive angle built into the front end will work if I don't tilt it 3 degrees down in front...
PO cut the trans xmember on my truck out with a torch. A small transmount was bolted in, but it doesn't look adequate to me, looks like one inch tube. Any suggestions on that?
Finally, is there any market for the old front ends? I guess I can haul it to the recyclers...
Not trying to steal your thread, Ross, it just seems we are close to the same spot on similiar projects.
