OK, this is officially my first question since "joining the family"! I just ordered a Mk4 complete kit yesterday, and it's set up for a Dec. 22 completion which will (hopefully) put it in my garage in early January. That should work out perfectly for me, as we'll be travelling over the holidays and I didn't want to try to coordinate a delivery around our travel schedule. I chose to order the IRS center section and knuckles from a different source other than FFR, partly for cost and partly because I could get them sooner than the rest of the kit which gives me something to play with and not go crazy waiting for the kit to arrive. The plan is to clean everything up, get the knuckles trimmed and drilled out and clearcoat/POR15 everything so it's ready to go when the kit arrives. To that end, I have a few questions:

(1) I know the kit includes the mounting bolts for the center section, but I've seen where folks have hung the case by the bolts as lift points and that looks like a good idea. Does anyone know what size bolts I'd need to do this? I'll still use the bolts that come in the kit to install the center section when those arrive, but I can also use these temporary bolts to make some tapered guide pins for installation eventually, as edwardb has shown.

(2) Perhaps a dumb question (won't be the last) but I'm assuming that folks don't remove the aluminum cover from the diff to paint them? I assume that things get masked off, spray the clear, let it dry, re-mask for the POR15 and brush that on? If so, did you spray the bolt heads on the cover, or mask those off? Sorry for the oddly specific questions, but this is what happens when OCD-types like myself have too much excitement and time on their hands waiting for something to arrive.

(3) I also know that the kit comes with the correct wheel studs for the rear hubs, but if I wanted to get the stud replacement out of the way and get everything painted before the kit comes, can someone advise the correct size studs? I know they're 1/2"-20 but I'm not sure of the knurl size or correct length. They're not terribly expensive so I'm OK buying these even though they'll come in the kit. It gives me another thing to do before the kit arrives.

(4) Regarding installation of the center section, I've seen where folks have devised some pretty clever ways of lifting the thing into place by themselves. What I'm wondering is, if I had lots of pizza and beer on hand and that happened to unwittingly lure several of my friends over, could I put them to use lifting the thing into place by hand or is it just too heavy and unwieldy to attempt this without some sort of lifting fixture? I have a 4 post lift in a garage with an 8' ceiling so I'm able to get the chassis ~4ft or so off the ground

Thanks,
John