I'm still rebuilding the front end. Today I rebuilt the shocks. I did something that mistercrash suggested when he was building his XXL - I put a thin lexan piece on the shock piston covering 10 of the 24 holes (imitating the traxxas variable damping kit). I've found I need to adjust the front shock pre-load a lot depending on whether I'm jumping (harder) or doing speed runs (softer) to get good handling. I'm hoping this mod will minimize the amount of adjusting I need to do - it should me good damping and good rebound. I used lighter oil (20wt) and I like the way it feels. We'll see:
Here is the front end partially rebuilt:
I bought new Al front bulkheads in a lot of parts some time back - so I'm going with them on the front. I have my "through-bolts" on the back holding everything together and will probably stick with them.
My homemade Al shock mounts on the front have done well and have only slightly bent one of the screws holding them. There was some questions raised earlier in this thread about whether the screws would hold up - so I'm happy to report that they have.