My thought at the time was to do a Dana 60 but I don't like them because of how difficult it can be to change the ring and pinion plus the cost of parts are expensive, so I went with the 8 3/4.
The Ford 9" is hella strong and parts along with gearing are readily available. I will be using either a Nodular Iron Drop out with a Nodular Pinion Carrier or Aluminum. The Aluminum piece is about 24lbs lighter than the Nodular Iron Case, we will see.
This time I will be shortening the Rear myself and not sub contracting it out. The new ends are about $60.00 and my friend Pete has the complete set up to weld the new ends on. He is going to let me use his set up. The whole process seems easy enough. The 9" I bought came out of a Lincoln Mark 8 or a Versailles it is the Big Bearing one. It has Disc Brakes already on it but I will probably ditch them and go with a Wilwood set up this time.