Thought I'd make an update as I have just pulled some bits off the rear of the car. I hate jacking this thing up and putting wood + axle stands underneath the body as I have an irrational fear that the floor of the car will just bend, or worse the stands will go through the floor completely.... anyway
I decided to take off the trailing arms and radius rods from both sides of the axle as well as the shocks - I have some shocks to go on the back but need to clean up and use the original springs if I can. The bushes are mostly OK, but did notice some cracking. I'm probably going to replace these with rubber bushes again (need to buy some, any recommendations?), don't really think polybushing would be a pleasant experience with the roads round here
I am going to use some top mounts from a pair of dolly struts as the toledo shocks are a slightly more annoying design which mean you can't easily take the shock off with the spring on as a unit and require taking off the top mount as you remove them from the car. The dolomite type have a smaller diameter strut top assembly so I'm going to use some of those going forward.
As for the other bits I'm going to get them sandblasted and powder coated, the springs I'm going to strip with acid and wire brush then paint some POR15 on.
My diff is leaking from the front seal, I've heard this is extremely common and I'm not sure I want to sort it out right away so will just give it a top up for now as it's only leaking a tiny amount. Pretty sure my other dolomite was exactly the same!
While I was in the boot I noticed some very unsightly looking cracking - the seam sealant here seems to have cracked which is making me wonder what underneath looks like... probably time to wire brush and see how bad it is..
The other side looks to be fine, though it's coated in underseal.
Roof gutters still need to be done as they're not looking great, next on the list after this I think. Will carry on with fuel injection stuff when all of this is done - have got everything ready for ignition and thermo fan to be controlled and have tested it on the bench to go in the car so just need to fit a solid state voltage regulator and make a loom for it as well as a pair of brackets for the new smart coil and the hall sensor.