[Christ]

I have to agree with Fabio.

Ben, you've already taken alot of steps forward, and aside from learning to safely weld, which I absolutely must endorse, learning to weld just isn't really that much of a life-changing thing.

I do a little bit here and there, and while I'm certainly no master, I've been welding with some varied capability since I was something like 12. I mean, come on. What part of this is dangerous?

Have you ever smacked your thumb with a welder? Ever sliced a finger off with one? No! Of course, you've never burned yourself with a hammer, and never shocked yourself with a roofing knife, either. It's just one of those things where if you recognize the risk, you're safer than most already.

Ben -

The front cross member, I like to call a "pet" project, because it doesn't save THAT much weight, but it does bring you closer to a 50/50 weight distro by a few lbs. Since the engine combo you have doesn't mount to the front, you'll actually save another 1 lb or so on the mounting plate that you won't need. Aside from that little bit of weight savings, it's a nice handling feature, once you figure out the tunability of it. I wouldn't go right out and just do it, as it were, but if you find that you've got spare time after the swap, and nothing better to do, it only takes a few hours to make and install, and it does help with some things, like getting rid of yet another set of squishy rubber bushing joints.

The setup also replaces the radius rods with a setup that uses spherical rod ends, which have a greater range of motion and allow for a much freer travel in the front suspension, without allowing the sloppy motion that bushings allow for.

And, I think I mentioned this before, but if you get flux wire, you can save some money by not getting the gas setup for your MIG, if that's the route you go.