First of all, I'm cool now.

I went to Todd Swangstu's (Toledo club) house Wednesday and filled my car with old bus parts. I did far better at his house than all swap meets I've attended this year put together. Big score!
I cleaned and painted some parts....
(that's a reflection of a tree in the trailing arms, they look grea
Before putting them on. I put new bushings in, and I had marked the arms and bars very well so they went back exactly where they came from. It's weird that you don't need a torsion bar compressor like Type 1s need, just a floor jack as it only needs to go a bit to get over the stop so the cover can be reinstalled. I'm thinking the T2 bars are much larger in diameter and don't need as much preload.
I don't want to tell you how many frigging hours I have cleaning this stupid tranny. I couldn't stand putting it in nasty, and man was it nasty. I wire wheeled the case and cleared it, cleaned, wirewheeled, ground and painted the axles. It looks like chrome or silver paint, but it's not, just mag and clear.
I removed the axle snubber brackets, blasted them, and removed the remnants of the original "nipples" holding the snubber on...
Found a big ass bolt that fits inside the snubber nice and tight....
Cut it, and migged it onto the brackets.....
And reinstalled the brackets....
before reinstalling the tranny. I'll replace the boots when I can get the axles level.
I used the old OEG coupler rather than the new WW one. Todd set me up with a shift rod 'cause mine was rough. I tried putting in the tranny with the front mount upside down, it don't work too good like that.

I prepped and painted the engine compartment. It's not quite this orangy, I think the camera is fooling us. I'm glad the safety chain was there when I was putting the tranny in, cause I could have easily knocked it off of the stands. The shell is as light as a feather when it's empty.
Probably at about 260 hours right now. I really want to get going on the outside bodywork but I figgered I better get the underneath stuff done first, as it's not wise to do that with fresh paint outside.
So, do you normally prep and paint the interior now, or paint it just before the exterior is done?