Decided to do a clear coat in the bay. This weekend, after some wet sanding and touch up, I cleared the bay with a satin high temp clear. Really happy with how it came out.
Same paint and clear coat on the fuse box bracket. Left a square unpainted for grounds.
Thought about moving the fuse box to the frame rail, but in the end decided against it for now so I can get the car running sooner. There are threaded holes already in the frame rail and I just drilled 2 holes in the side of the bracket. Everything cleared fine, but you have to extend the entire harness of wires coming through the driver's side fender. I didn't want to spend a whole weekend doing that wiring. Also, I couldn't really see any clean way to get that harness to the fuse box. Anything through the wheel well is in danger of being hit by the wheel, suspension, steering linkage, or axle. Running it through the bay defeats the purpose. I may tackle this in the future, but for now I just want to concentrate on getting the car running.
My axles are also stuck in the hubs. The passenger side axle nut will not come off no matter how big of a breaker bar I throw at it. I may need to go rent an electric impact and hope it doesn't blow the fuse for the 10 garages that mine is in the middle of lol. The driver's side is just plain stuck in the hub. My friend showed me this neat trick of soaking the hub in PB Blaster. All you need is a couple zip ties and a latex glove. Zip tie the open end of the glove around the hub, cut off the middle finger and fill with PB blaster, and zip tie the fingers up so the hub is totally immersed in the PB Blaster. Its been sitting for the last 24 hours. I'll probably let is sit for the next week and try to get it out next weekend.