Stove,
In order to give what I see pictured a good chance of working well all the rust is going to be gone, right?
The hone marks are way too rough.The smoothest you can make the resurfaced walls is none too smooth.400-500 Hones and 400 grit wet or dry paper are better at smoothing the walls than rings and the rings WILL be short lived if they have to do the job.
What is ring clearance? The maximum ring SIDE clearance in the grooves is .006 and less is better.
End gap should be .003 PER INCH OF BORE MINIMUM when measured in the smallest part of the bore.
Good luck and work hard on that rust.
Originally Posted by Stove
Are there any tips before I go ahead and install rings / pistons?

The ridge is removed and I honed the cylinders last year. Following the hone I scrubbed and washed the cylinders thoroughly with water and detergent.

As I understand it, the oil control ring "spirals" on, and the compression rings go on with a spreader (top up). There should be .015 to .003 ring clearance and .005 to .015 ring gap. I imagine the rings & cylinders get a liberal coat of assembly lube.

The pistons drop in with a sleeve type compressor, and the rod caps get tightened to 40 to 50 ft-lbs. The cylinder numbers on the rods face the cam.

That should be it, right?

Worst cylinder
Worst crank pin
Typical rod bearing
Piston
NOS rings

Bob Taylor