I know what you're saying; I just spent 30h fitting and tig welding a stainless dual exhaust on a 65 mustang I'm working on, just because I wanted it to be right. I wanted something that would last forever and be easy to work on. There were options that would've taken less time but they would have been less acceptable.
I'm familiar with the heat treating process for front end parts, so that's a pretty fair justification on its own. They're largely very thick wall tubing, since that's stronger in bending than a solid bar, but you're right it's a fairly specialized process. I wonder if you could do it with cutting and welding the centre section to give you a dropped centre that way. You wouldn't lose any strength from a bend. Possibly find a stock piece off a mini truck with a beam axle front end? Just working the thought exercise a bit here, sounds like you do have plenty of clearance for what the truck is intended to do anyway.
Carry on, I look forward to seeing the progress on this and the FJ in the other thread.
