All great info and advice - I actually did it a little different.
I tore the car apart and have spent the past 1.5yrs getting all of my sub-assemblies restored. All I have left is the engine to be rebuilt and some misc pully's and brackets to be powder coated. Once those are done, I'll have the car painted (of course need to save up a few more $$$).

But atleast once the car is painted, I will have everything ready to go for installation...