I've been remiss in keeping this up to date, but really not much has happened.  I've sandblasted the axle tubes, brake backing plates and knuckles, and then painted them.  I'm going to put some details in multiple posts just to keep things straight.

Unfortunately, I discovered the 44/27 axles didn't both have 11" brakes.  The 44 had 11", while the 27 had 10" brakes.  It really doesn't seem like a great idea to have the more powerful brakes on the rear, but that's what they had.  One of the 11" backing plates had also been repaired--fairly well, mind you.

I think, all things considered, that I'm going to stick with the 9" brakes that the CJ-3A came with.  I really don't want different brakes front and rear.

I haven't made up my mind on the knuckles yet.  I was planning on using the knuckles off the 27, since one of the tie rod connections on the 25's knuckles was a bit worn.  But other than that wear, the knuckles from the 25 are in better shape.  Funny, though:  if I decide to keep the knuckles from the 25, then the effort I've spend disassembling and cleaning the 44/27 pair of axles will be entirely for naught, as it had been for the brake backing plates and knuckles...

Sandblasted brake backing plates and knuckles are shown in the picture below.  You can see the three different sizes of plates (2 each of 10" and 11", and 4 of the 9").

 And here are the axles tubes (25 and 41).  The rust is from dew.  I sandblasted at the cabin, and we spent the night there.  By morning, there was rust...  But it was just minor surface rust and cleaned off easily.