LOL!!!!! virtually every person in this thread agreed that the 9" was the way to go in your case and that's what YOU want more importantly, yet my buddy chooses to take ME to task over my opinion. Guess I'm special........LOL!!! He has been here two years and seems to be his mission to argue with me....well, pretty much everybody......LOL!!!

For the housing at the proposed power level........it's going to need to be a good one or it's going to bend out past the spring pads. So the Strange or ANY fabricated housing for that matter will be fine, but somebody is going to have to put a full width brace on it that extends to the housing ends. The ends to choose won't matter, unless you already have brakes. If so, choose the end for the brakes you have..........OR go with the common big Ford or symmetrical big Ford and buy new caliper brackets

... like this is all about you!

I'm a slow recreational bracket guy with 3 gear sets for my D60.... carry on!

It all depends on application. We just put a Dana 60 in a friends 68 Buick. It's a 10s car. Weighs two tons so an extra 40 pounds in the rear didn't matter, cores are cheap and we have the jig to weld it up ourselves. If weight matters or if available gear selections matter buy a 9".

Let's not get this post locked too.

MY mom said I was SPECIAL! LOL

FWIW Guys.....Check this out
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/transmission-drivetrain/ccrp-0806-chevy-chevelle-rear-axle-swap/

Being that your running leaf springs and you
need a back brace.. you can run a wider one all
the way to the outer side of the spring pads then
turn it in.. that way you run the spring bolts
thru the back brace.. if you stop it at the spring
pads the outer ends will bend.. this is my 9" but
its for a ladder bar.. but you will get the idea
at where the pads would be.. on mine you can see
its angled all the way... yours wont be angled in
as much till after the pad.. I've only done one this
way.. most dont use leafs
EDIT
you will have to move the shocks which you should
do anyways to mount then vertical

Why would that happen? Matt wants a 9" and asked for suggestions and we are helping him out.

Here's the Dana "band-aid" Monte was talking about,not sure how much help that small rod would be. I think my Dana housing may be bent that's the primary reason I'm thinking of switching back to a 9 inch. I would just re-use all my rear brakes off the Dana with Mopar ends and check to see if I could re-use my 35 spline axles in the 9" housing
Gus

Outside the pads is where they bend......and those rods won't help that. If the car is harder to push in a straight line than before....housing is bent

The axles are harder to remove than they used to be.I never needed to use a slide hammer to tap them out before the big engine and finding traction.
I'm changing gears this winter and I need to make the decision to change to a 9" or re-tube the Dana
Gus

Any good rear end shop can straighten it BUT
that doesnt fix the problem.. the brace has to
go out to the ends.. right to the bearing ends
EDIT
You already know its bent.. just because you have
to use a slide hammer on the axles

These are the ones I am running... they are a GM style bolt pattern.. the important thing is the large bearing are you trying to reuse existing brakes

mr. P do you have any pictures of the internal bracing... if not I can go out and take some just in case someone's interested in reinforcing their own housing

Fourgear, that's exactly what I did when I built my 9". I used an aluminum Winters housing center and had Dr Diff build me a set of tubes the size I wanted and put mopar ends on the tubes. I was able to reuse both my 35 spline axles and my Wilwood brakes. Saved a few bills for sure. If your spool is splined all the way through you will probably be able to use your axles, mine was and it all fit together. The unknown in my case is the Winters center housing however I did add some additional bracing to help. I'm using a Moser thru bolt center, pro gears and a monster 10 bolt pinion support I found years ago. I haven't run it yet so this next year will be the test with my new blower engine.

BTW over the years I have had excellent results from the 8 3/4 unit I have used. I've only broken 2 R&P in over 20 yrs use and that's behind 550 to 650 hp smallblocks with transbrakes, big slicks and street gears, no wait, one set was a 4.88 progear.

What do you mean "internal" all my work is done
on the back of the housing... if you are asking
about the leaf spring version I did its gone so
no pics.. but I have my 9" I can take any pics
of.. as long as its not internal

I thought at one time you had posted pictures of internal bracing.. maybe I was wrong... a lot of fab housing have reinforcement on the inside.. similar to this this is what we did

Last one

Nope... wasnt me... I've never done that.. I've
never had any problems in there... I really havent
had any problems with either the 8 3/4 or my 9"..
I did blow a cap off my stock 8 3/4 after about 600
passes, all on the trans brake.. then I changed over
to the alum center I have now

How much are loaded center sections for the 9". Use them or not, I was pretty much a ratio horder when I had 8.75. Sure was nice to set them up on the bench rather than under the car.