i assume you would have to cut of the perches and do a bunch of fab work on that rear. call me crazy, but i thought you were doing a motor for this car? seems like you have a lot on your plate and your going in several directions at once. you might want to figure out one thing first. what motor your going to run maybe, how much hp/tq. thatll give you some idea as to what rearend to run. personally i think that if youre going to go out and shorten a truck housing and all this other crap you should go hunt down a truck with a 9 inch or a dana. hell your already cutting housings and welding mounts and what not. this is something that was done back in the day when no one was producing rears now that numerous companies do its no longer necessary. i would work on the motor trans combo and save up for a rear.

 

here is the picture of my diff..i was wet on the ground so i didnt really want to crawl under it.if you need a better picture let me know

 

thats an 8.2. now you need to figure out what you want to do with the car, the goals you have set for it, and then figure out the best route to go. like i said the 8.5 can be built to handle power, but at the point that youre throwing money at it youre probably better of finding a 12 bolt,9", or dana 60. i think the rear is the last thing that you should do. motor and tranny are going to be the priciest and most important things. all honesty as long as the car doesnt hook it shouldnt blow the rear up anyway.