Progresso! A little bit, anyway....I feel like I took a significant step backward after a bunch of work today.
I decided to do a "high fender" deal for better tire clearance. On a flatty, you just raise the fenders up 2.75", which also moves them forward 1.38". I have stuff in the way of the fenders currently, but I cut most of the hood and moved it forward first...I'll finalize the cut later, along with the fenders. I'll start with the previous picture, so you have a comparison:
Before:
After. You can see the gap I need to fill at the rear of the hood here:
Bunches more tire clearance--which is really good, since I couldn't even put the fenders on at full compression (which is right now). The tire was already higher than the fender, so that'll be fixed now.
This is the sad part. The cut gets rid of the "Willys" stamping on the hood.
The side benefit of moving the hood forward like this, is that it also moves the grill forward. Makes plenty of room for the radiator and electric fan.
BUT
Now that I have a pretty good idea where the radiator will live, I found there's no way I can use the Astro van steering box I planned on using. The radiator and steering box would need to occupy the same space, which isn't going to fly.
Looks like my best option is to use a "normal" Saginaw box in the front of the frame. I thought the forward-facing pitman would be really cool and clean--and I think it would be, if only it would fit. Oh well, perhaps another time.