Sorry for the lengthy post, but thank you in advance to those who read this and have any advice!

Here’s some background…

Our family has wanted to get an older truck for a very long time, and we finally bought one yesterday! Being of modest means 😂, we needed to go with one that needed SOME work, but not a ton—this needs to be Hubs’s work vehicle. What we found is the Ford mentioned above for $5,500. It’s in great condition mechanically (according to the garage we took it to before purchasing). It runs great, has a newish engine (but only a V6, much to the chagrin of our teen boys 😂), and only needs some relatively minor work, such as tightening up the steering and (according to the seller) better tires to reduce hydroplaning in heavy rain on the highway. But anyway, we just got it on the road today, and we’re thrilled!

So, this is where we’re looking for advice. It does need some bodywork done to make it purdy 🤣 (and, more importantly, to keep it from rusting out). It’s not horrible, IMHO, but it does have some dings/smallish crunches/dents, faded/splotchy/worn paint, and some rust starting where the paint is completely gone (the rust appears to be only on the surface). Most of the rubber pieces along the sides are peeling back at the edges. I’m not sure if they’re technically called trim… or bumpers??? I’m not looking at it now, but I THINK everything is pretty well sealed up around the windows—though I do remember the color is faded and splotchy there too. The interior is incredibly clean for its age but has some minor issues, like a loose molded plastic panel on one of the doors and a slightly sagging ceiling material. We’d also like to look into the possibility of replacing the original seat belts with something a bit more up-to-date in terms of safety.

One of the reasons we wanted an older truck that needed a bit of work (other than us being PO’😂😂😂) is for the learning experience—for both us and our teens. Our boys are car nuts (“cars” was one of their very first words 🤣), and we thought learning to do basic maintenance and repairs on an older vehicle would be easier than on our newer (by comparison 🤣) family van.

So that’s where we’re at. I’m typically the researcher for the family. So far, I’ve located a few YouTube channels that show how to do basic bodywork, but I’m looking for any channel recommendations or other resources. We are a very visual family, so videos work best. Any Reddit/Discord communities or other forum recommendations would be great too!

Suggestions on locating places to find affordable but QUALITY tools, parts, supplies, etc., would be EXTREMELY helpful, along with tips on how noobs typically get ripped off, waste time/money, or damage their vehicles—or themselves (we’d like to keep all of our body parts intact and functioning properly, thank you very much! 🤣).

Overall, I'd like to get an idea of how possible it is for us to do this work ourselves. Personally, I’m most concerned with getting the rust taken care of where the paint is completely worn. Can it be sanded and covered with something to protect it until we can get to the more involved projects? Also, are we going to need to eventually strip the whole thing, or can we just prime/paint over what’s left of the current paint after taking care of the rust and dents? Again, I’m only starting to look into this, so forgive me for my naïvety 🤣.

Thanks in advance, Reddit!