The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop new paint job, and more eventually

Closest I've ever come to doing a complete restoration all at one time. At least that was the intent but once the bed was off and the hottest part of summer (2021) spent wire brushing, scraping, and cleaning the back half of the frame, day after miserable day....let's just say I burned out on the idea of a "total" resto. 
Rear frame turned out nice though.

And she doesn't really need a total resto. There's little to no mechanical improvement to be had, because fortunately, everything works perfectly (for now). haha

That 30 year old paint job though...I'm tired of staring at my mistakes, and 30 years is a long time for any paint to last, especially on one that's regularly driven and used.
 
Getting the sheet metal prepped, re-painted, and buffed took from July through May of this year and I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. It's red once again, 1982 throwback color paying homage to an amazing time in my life, and it's the one color I don't think I'll regret or wish I'd went with the tan, or white or seacrest green...all of those were considered, as was original forester green, which wouldn't have been a big enough change to make me feel it was worth the hard work, plus it's HOT as blazes in the AZ sunshine and magnifies flaws, as dark colors are prone to do.
 
So I'll go ahead and post a few pics of the exterior.  Should have bed wood refinished and installed within the next couple weeks; more pics when that's done.
 
Then perhaps this winter pull the engine and do a thorough job (by my standards) prepping and repainting firewall and everything else under the hood. Original 216 still runs great but I'd feel better replacing phenolic timing gear with aluminum, and bearings could use adjusting. Plus a new hi-quality rope main seal, if such a creature exists.
 
First pic is with yours truly 40 years ago...then and now.