beefy front end?

If you havn't already and you drive it on the street, I would get better torsion bars, also would upgrade to the 11 3/4 inch disk brakes (at the very least get some 10 5/8 discs from a 73 or newer A body, and yes, you can use C body tie rod ends although I don't recall if your supposed to use the adjusting sleeve from a C body or if you stick with the A body sleeve. I am pretty sure you stay with the A body adjusting sleeve though, if I recall correctly they are the same but the C body adjusters might be longer. I will scrounge round and see if I can find the article I read about that swap in.