Really appreciate you taking the time to follow up Tom.
I was aware of the listing you pointed me to and I reached out to the seller, explained what I was building, and respectfully requested his help measuring guide locations even though I wasn't interested in purchasing the rod. Turns out he lives within 3 miles of where I'm at and he agreed to meet me with the rod and let me take the measurements myself. We tried to connect but never actually came together.
After not receiving any bites on guide spacing here, I proceeded on-plan and did a static test and set the guide locations based on that. My final looked much different than those on the 8180 auction listing - I ended up with two more guides than the factory rod (10 vs. 8 ) and from the pix, I'm using smaller guides at the front end (1/0 vs what looks to be 1's or 2's in the auction photos).
I had the opportunity to fish this rod a couple of times since completing the build and I'm extremely happy with how it fishes. Extremely happy. I've attached a few pix and additional info below in hopes that this thread can be used by someone else down the road.
My Guide spacing:
T = 0.087" (5.5)
3-7/8" (1/0)
8-3/8" (1/0)
13-3/8" (1)
18-3/4" (1)
24-5/8" (1)
31-1/8" (2)
38" (2)
45-1/4" (3)
53-5/8" (3)
65" (12)
Incidentally, when I purchased the blank, it came with a factory GPH-2 seat/grip. I opted to finish the rod with a fenwick grip and an antique gold DL seat with a brown Carbon fiber insert that I think looks great with the amber Glass.