My plan was to get the springs hung tonight.  First step is to hang the front end of the springs.  I just stuck them in finger tight for now.

Then I pulled out the new shackles and hit a snag.  These are bare metal.  I just got the rust cleaned off this thing, no way I am I putting this together without painting them first.  So I de-greased the metal and painted everything.  But it is cold out tonight and the paint is taking forever to dry so the springs are pretty much a non-starter tonight.

So I turned my attention to my new U bolts.  These never seem to fit right out of the box.  These were too narrow so I hooked them over the jaws of my vice and spread them out until they fit.

Length is the next issue.  The top shows how much u-bolt was sticking out of the nuts before.  Too much in my opinion.  I decided to cut an inch off each bolt and made those yellow marks to cut on.

On the front I used a die grinder with cut-off wheels but that was too slow.  This time I bought a 4″ cut-off wheel for my angle grinder.  It made quick work of the cuts.  Then I dressed the bolts with a file and tested with a nut.  These are ready to go but I can’t do anything else until the paint dries.