1. I can only answer for myself ... YES. I redid everything ... from the starter motor to the rear brakes.
2. Again YES, you will save money (a lot of money) in the long run doing small parts yourself.
3. Save specialty nuts & bolts ie: hood, door, lug nuts, etc. When it came to nuts & blots in particular the deck crank 'em in and brake 'em off. I replace every nut and every bolt that I removed with stainless ... don't ever want to go throught that again. But stainless is up to you ... if yer budget is tight go with regular grade three bolts.
4. A.) No not that I noticed. B.) Telfon hmmm not sure on that ... a piece of rubber tubing or even burlap soaked in oil ... I have nothing and they don't seem to squeek. C.) My rule of thumb is if it's broken or cracked [censored] can it and get another. D.) Can't answer that one because for me there's only one way ... flat out ... take 'er off the road and do it ... maybe someone else can answer you on that one.
Time wise ... the more I do on these the better I feel it's an elixer for me so I would say that I could never be honest about how much time I spent on my trucks ...
I remember one time that I was almost finished and looked closely at the bed ... one carriage bolt was sitting a little proud of the others ... so I decided to fix it ... had to removed the fuel tank ... drain it first ... disconnect everything ... tighten the nut which untimately stripped, go to town get another nut and bolt install it ... replace the tank, reconnect, and refill the gastank ... took me about 8 hours ... to tighten one nut ... seems silly now but at the time it was vitally important ...
