I got the drop spindles installed, and re-installed the 3" drop springs with belltech's 1" spacer. I also scored a smoothie bumper for the truck, so I decided to ditch the rear bumper and go with a roll pan.
I made another milestone this weekend, and finally got the garage wired for 240v. Now that I have the capability to run my larger mig, and more amps on the plasma cutter, it blows my mind that I waited this long to do it. I was pretty excited, so I got the truck spun around, and knocked the box off, and removed the gas tank, and the rear end out again. I mentioned I picked up some tubing a little while ago, so I put it to good use, and built sort of a truss for the c-notch. They will end up looking kind of like the avs super notch, but a bit beefier. I will end up plating the inside too, then build the bridge for the relocated shocks. Here are a couple pictures of how things are starting to look.
Now that the fab stuff is happening, I made the decision to turf the factory tank. I got a rear 19 gal tank from the same ford pickup that I scored the rear sway bar from, and rough measuring shows it will fit the frame rails. I just have to see how it looks after the notch is done, and get the rear end mocked back up so I know how much room the shocks need. Double bonus; if it all fits, then the sway bar will work perfect also. More progress pictures coming, as i'm making steady progress.