Thanks, it is coming along as well as I could have hoped. As you pointed out there were space issues putting the shock down between the uprights. I'd worked on several different configurations during the design phase and actually liked the idea of the shock exposed on top. From a functional standpoint I didn't think there would be much difference between mounting it low or high.
The most challenging part of the design for me was finding appropriate 1/3 scale parts and keeping to my $1,000 USD budget. The "shocks" I ended up choosing were inexpensive bicycle shocks and limited some creativity as they came with 350lb springs. I had to come up with a design where 25lbs of force on the end of the arm would compress the 350lb spring.