8 3/4 detailing. On or off car?

[JH27N0B]

When I retrieved my T/A from the restoration shop, I was disappointed (though not surprised) to see they hadn't detailed the rear axle housing and center chunk.  The housing was fairly pitted, and they had done a decent job of smoothing it out and painting it black.  The painted the backing plates and against my wishes painted the center chunk gray, then installed it.
I was pleased to see Cody had made available templates for ordering up stamps for part numbers and date codes.  I have pictures that I took years back that give me a decent idea of paint daubs and the "E" handwritten on the housing.
I'm not pleased with the center chunk, I'd wanted it to be bare metal for OE restoration accuracy, and worst is the fact the shop painted it what a friend called "battleship gray".
I'd really like to remove the chunk and strip that paint off.
The backing plates are OK, maybe.  They are silver, I've been given info that original was bare cast with a thin greenish brown coating, so I may be able to detail it to look correct without stripping and redoing from scratch.
Friends have told me taking the whole axle assembly out in my garage and putting it on stands will be a pain, and may be a challenge to reinstall without messing up driveline alignment etc.
Looking for advice on how big a job to take the assembly out and put back on?

[Chryco Psycho]

I would not go back to bare steel it will be rust orange in minutes with rust , I would mask it off & use a coat of cast gray paint over what they painted it with,  you could pull the whole diff , not that hard to do or disassemble & pull the 3rd member out & paint it .

[Cuda Cody]

   If you leave it bare metal it could rust pretty quick.  If you strip it back to bare metal then maybe you could use a matte clear to keep it from rusting.  Or use the "battleship grey" they painted it and dust in some other (off shades) of grey, black and silver to make it look like bare cast metal.  I call it tri-misting.  I would not remove it from the car if you can help it.  Use a bunch of masking paper and try to do it in the car if you can.  Yes, it would be easier to paint outside the car, but it's a lot of work just to paint it.   

Here's what I mean when I say Tri-Misting.  This is 2 shades of mist grey with a black mist on top.  Yes I know it's not 100% factory correct.  But I like that it looks someone close to stock and will last MUCH longer.  I like driving my cars and having them look good too.

[anlauto]

I agree with all the above

[JH27N0B]

Looks nice!
Many front end components have been painted cast iron on my car too. So it's not like I'd be breaking a precedent with it.
I've been trying to come up with an "end game" goal with the car, as I'd started the project almost 20 years earlier, and things change with tastes over the years.  I'd started out with an OE gold mentality.  Over time I got to thinking that maybe isn't realistic, given how high the bar was raised by people like Dave Walden.  And not to mention the need to have an almost unlimited budget to buy lunch box type parts etc!
On the other hand, it was never my favorite car to drive. I bought my convertible after doing a lot of soul searching on what I liked and didn't, and the results of my wants list, power steering, good ventilation, rear exit exhaust among others things, that the lack of made me not like driving the T/A, made the idea of a convertible Challenger seemed ideal, and after finally finding one, I found I had really gotten it right for once thinking through a dream and achieving it!
But I'm going off my topic here.  I've had in mind posting in general for ideas of what end goals I should strive for with the T/A, what shows it should go to, and such. I don't think I'll ever drive it further than a local cruise, and even with that cringe at the thoughts of trying to back into a space at the cruise with that damn manual steering, and emerging from the car after parking suffering  from carbon monoxide poisoning from the side exhaust!

[soundcontrol]

When I picked up my restored a833, I actually thought it was bare blasted metal, but it is painted with Plasticote rebuilders cast. Looks great to me.

[RUNCHARGER]

I use the rebuilders cast as well. I hate bleeding brakes so if you have brake fluid in the system I would do what I can in the car and maybe pull the center section out for a detail. If not and the shock plates and u-bolts need proper coating as well I would pull the whole works out I think.

[JH27N0B]

DOT 5 in my system.
Here is a picture of my rear, I have no idea why the shop didn't do any parts numbers or markings.  They have a whole drawer full of stencils and stamps I've seen!