Well that didn't work to well???
I put two aftermarket front fenders on and had two patch panels put in over the bed wheel openings. I painted it with a 4" foam roller. Still lots of dents but I wanted this one to be functional, not pretty. My motto on this build was "don't let perfection get in the way of good enough"

The front axle is a closed knuckle Dana 70 which everyone says to run from. I looked around for a 60 with disc brakes but found nothing within driving distance and everything else was $1000 plus shipping. Since this truck had such low miles I pulled the cover on the 70. The gears had no wear. I found the goofy ball seals, cleaned everything, repacked bearing etc. The thing has massive 12x3 inch brake shoes front and rear and actually stops well? I have a booster/master combo ordered from Summit as this one looks original. Everone is backordered but Summit says this will ship from the manufacturer eventually. IF afront Dana falls in my lap really cheap I'll swap but for now I'm good.