[chrismorse]

Ready to assemble my dad's 74 front end. This slippery slope started 6 years ago with a sticking front caliper and a bit of an annoying squeak, (worn a arm bushings allowing the torsion bar to "rub" on the cross member). Life got in the way, fixing and selling houses, a few surgeries, moving, replacing concrete for The Lift....
Parts cleaned, blasted, painted or powder coated, new ER rubber, now, all I have to do, is to deal with drivers footwell floor rust, then put everything back together. Rebushing the optional Carrera bars and adding adjustable rear drop links for the obligatory cornerweighting after height and alignment set.

Torsion bars fail when they have significant rust, or more likely, a worn spot, (stress riser), I have heard a few say that bars weaken with age and should be replaced, but will leave that to those with serious shop experience. If your bars are not worn and you aren't wanting to firm things up - re use the old bars.
So, I initially bought a good used bar to replace the worn bar, then, after more reading here, decided to do a mild upgrade on the suspension and moved from basic stock replacement stuff to 21 & 28 t bars with elephant rubber, bilstein HDs, PMB restored M calipers, new discs, bearings, SS lines, sport hardness strut top bushings.
This, of course led to a new master cylinder, rapidly, including a pedal cluster rebuild.
Moving on down the slick slope, I opted to install a Quaiffe "Quick rack and pinion", while doing the steering rack refresh, being somewhat anal, I opted to upgrade to sealed pinion bearings.

Because of the time and expense of corner-weighting and alignment, I think it is most effective to get all of the suspension work done once, not piecemeal.
IMHO, it is "Wise", (one of Wayne's favorite admonitions), to plan your rebuild with a trusted Pro like Chuck, at ER, I felt like he was not only very knowledgeable, but genuinely interested in helping me; not just selling parts.

There seem to be a lot of fat old "phuggers" with 74s, (I'm 70 and sporting 175 pounds of enthusiasm), ? ��
Semi retired, blessed with a recently installed Rotary, asymmetric, 9K lift, I am looking forward to the assembly process.
Chris