My take on things: If you are going for 100 point show quality restoration, you need to leave things as the factory did them originally. However, any other purpose and do what you personally like. For me, I did a combination of both approaches. For instances on the tailgate: I left the spots welds visible from the outside, but got rid of them on the inside. I filled the spot welds on the top of the bedsides (at stake pockets). Same for inside skin of doors (where spacer was spot welded to interior door skin) and generally smoothed the door jambs. I also deleted the rivets at the rear fender braces.
It all personal preference, but I knew I was not going for a 100 point perfect restoration as I did my own painting and the simple fact is that I am good, but not that good.
