drive shaft planning

Finished painting and welding in the drivers side suspension mounts and control arms.  Since I can't tighten the through bolts super tight (would crush the frame rails) I tacked the nuts and bolt heads down with a spot weld to help hold everything still (locktight is for pansies!).  These bolts are permanent, but if I ever want them out, I put the tack in an easy to cut spot.

I decided to tackle the driveshaft next.  I put the mustang drive shaft up under there and wouldn't you know I need a longer driveshaft, not shorter.  After contemplating combing a junkyard for a manual shift pickup with an 8 foot bed, I decided to just have one made.  I asked my buddy Kenny where he had his made, and he had one laying around and several different size u-joints he said I could have.

Rusty one is from the mustang.  Black one is from Kenny's truck before he went to a two piece driveshaft to fix some vibration issues:

So yes this thing vibrates above about 80 mph.  Shortening it by 20% should cure that, so if I have vibration issues, I will get it balanced and I expect that will be the end of that.  Also, It is fun to think of my car as powerful, but it is nothing compared to kenny's truck so it should be fine.  

The U joint on one end was the right size.  The one on the other end and the two new ones that he gave me are all not the right size.  Drive shaft pivot was 1 3/16 dia, and the bit attaching to the pinion was 1 1/16 dia.  Found a spicer u joint that hits both of those (5-648x) for $30 on Amazon.  So I grabbed some brake hoses to hook up the rear brakes.

Went ahead and removed the u joint from the end of the shaft.  It is nice to have a press for this.  So much more civilized than trying to beat it out of there.