Rear Suspension is done

I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on the car so it took me awhile to finish up the rear suspension.  But now all of the components are either painted, powdercoated or cleaned up.  I also took this time to paint the transaxle case.  Eventually I'm going to replace the transaxle, because this one is just for display.  It doesn't have any internals and besides it is an oval track gearbox (Xtrac Model 195) so it doesn't have the capability for a reverse gear.

While the rear was apart it gave me the chance to take a lot of measurements of the bellhousing and the engine compartment.  I am now further convinced that I can squeeze in a Chevy LS engine without adding any length to the chassis.  There will be lots of things to figure out and problems to solve, but I don't see any show stoppers.

So here are some before and after pictures of the rear of the car.  Here is a front view before...

and after.

And here is a rear view before...

and after.

And a close up of the transaxle...

I need to go around once more and double check the tightness of all of the bolts and touch up a couple of places where the paint got scratched during assembly, but basically this project is done.

Next up is to test fit the Chevy LS engine.  I was able to buy a cheap, junk long block to test with so as soon as I get it cleaned up, I can start working on a front mounting plate and a block-to-bellhousing adapter plate.