Got on with some bits i'd been putting off due to the 'fear' of doing it.
There was a tiny bit of over 'blasting' from the second round of paint that left the bottom of the rails looking like they could suffer, along with the lovely original panel joins in the wheel well, that would be prone to water ingress, so it was stripped, etched/sealed/primed/stone chipped and painted.
stone chip
all under the front also.
Then paint
Once that was done, subframes and ARB's.
Rear wheel bearings finally sorted. I've got a technique now, after all the practice I had! I shimmed the companion flange 1mm using 0.5mm shims, wheels turn nice and freely.
A dry build of the front suspension
I've an issue, where the lower adjuster on the front strut hits the balljoint thread.
only needs 3mm to clear
However a set of RCA's/bump steer spacers will do the job. Common american ones are 1" which I think is far too much, 15-18mm would do myself fine.
I've concern over how close to the frame rail the front arb is.
I can't remember how close the standard one is. a 'fix' would be to increase the thickness of the spacer/spreader plate under the chassis rail and cutting some length out of the distance piece on the arb link. I'll measure how much travel I get before it hits first.
I did drop it on its wheels for the first time in 7-8 years.