rear ends to choose from?

Being a big block guy I have found the Dana's the cheapest way to go for
me. Especially after breaking a few 8 3/4s. I wouldn't go as far as saying
it is cheaper than some of the other options discussed above. But the Dana doesn't
have to be as expensive as most think. You will have to do most of the work yourself
though.
The only thing that helps to make the dana economical is there are millions
of them out there under trucks so if you look around you can find one with a
power loc and most of them usually have a 4.10 gear. Bonus if that gear will work for you. Being able to weld is also a big plus to keep cost at a minimum.
I would pass on any that didn't have a limited slip of some sort. You may have to look at
10 before you find one that does. And you may have to drag the whole junk truck home
with you just to get the dana at a good price. I never pay over 100.00 for a truck Dana.
Never forget their are lots more out there. At least here in the farm community I live in. I never pass on one with a limited slip if the price isn't to high and it isn't damaged. They can get damaged in trucks.
If you have to buy the whole truck you can pay a little more and scrap the truck to
get your money back.
I save the axle ends and brakes off the broken 8 3/4s for parts you will need.
Here's the bad part. There are many different tooth count on the side gears
in the limited slip units. You may get lucky and find one with 35 spline. This would be
the cheapest start.
Chances are it will have 16 or something you don't want in your car. This is why
you don't want to pay much for them at the start. So now you have about 350.00
in your Dana rather than 100.00. This should get you the 35 spline side gears some replacement clutch packs and a mabey a1350 yoke if you are careful where you
buy from. You still will need some custom axles. The rest is mostly labor and if you
think you may be doing more than 1 axle it would be good to get the tools and learn how to set them up yourself.
For 1 axle it would be cheaper to have someone do this part for you.
For me it was worth the time and investment as I wanted to build several to go behind
BB cars. Probably not worth all the effort for a small block car.