Pretty much a body restoration and in my favorite color (NOT), black. Being a Florida truck(humidity), it not only rusted out down low in the usual places but also the roof, just above the windshield so I had to weld a whole new(used) roof on it and the glass had to fit back in afterwards.
This was a camper special and as such, had 8 hooks bolted to the outside of the bed with two bolts per. That meant filling sixteen 3/8″ holes with weld so there would only be a thin coat of filler. There were also almost 50 holes on the top rails of the bed from different camper tops being bolted on over the years, which also got filled with weld.
New lower front and rear pillars, inner and outer rockers, cab corners and lower door patches.
The lettering on the tailgate is paint, not decals. Being debossed, I sprayed a latex rubber masking used in the sign business and hand cut it. The top edge of the tailgate was bowed out about 1 1/2″ so I worked it with hammers and dollies.
I hung the hood vertically for painting so that it didn’t end up full of dust because I didn’t have a paint booth.
Unfortunately, I never got a pic of the truck all put back together but I did get plenty of in progress shots. Once again, a disposable camera was used as digital cameras were new to the market and cost four figures for a decent one.
The buff(yellow) primer used was something from the sign business and is no longer made due to environmental and health reasons. It contained phosphoric acid, zinc and a few other nasties but had the adhesion of epoxy primer and the sandability of laquer primer and would stick to aluminum. Bad ass stuff.