Durt,
I have been looking at the Ford 9" also. The best housing solution I have found is one from Mark Williams. It is quite robust and easily adapted to an IRS application. An added benefit is the housing is designed to provide a centered pinion.
Checking out the flanged sides it is not a very big jump to see how you would mount this beauty and judging from the size and number of fasteners it would take a nuclear explosion to break it free. The housing is only 16" wide from mounting flange to mounting flange. Pretty cool!
The pumpkin is std 9" hot rod Ford so you can build it as strong as you want. The half shafts will end up being custom but there are a number of firms MW included that can fab these up as strong as you want.
Click here to see the Hsg =>
http://www.markwilliams.com/detail.aspx?ID=1202
Oh by the way the MSRP is only $934!!
Ed