I peeked under the truck to do an inspection and found a few things to repair. The leaf springs were jacked apart by rust and there were some thin spots on the frame. We are refurbishing the springs....removing rust, priming, and painting. It takes forever to grind the rust off. The u-bolts are still fine, so they will get reinstalled. The frame is really bad around the hitch/bumper mounts, so I am going to replace the rear 80" of frame with an 86" section of 7" formed channel for another 6" of bed length. (Building a flatbed) We started on the springs today, and should have them buttoned back up tomorrow. Then we can take care of the frame/crossmembers, and a few other things. I might do my transmission swap this week too, since the bed is off. Have to get new shocks and extend the exhaust a little. I was surprised to see the sticker still on the springs after about 10 years. Older trucks are so easy to work on.
Got the other side done today. Hours of grinding rust. They're painted and drying for assembly in the morning. One of them said "copy" on it, probably written with a paont pen, because it is raised.
