I love GI ingenuity!! It was things like the “the snazzy fuel tank on the front bumper” that got the grunts through lots of bad situations. It goes well with that truck. I hope you keep the old beast rolling. My advice, if you don’t mind, if you can’t do body work, at least scrape, sand or blast the rust down to metal and paint it over.
We have hosted exchange students from several European countries and Australia and there really is a difference in the way we ‘Yanks’ solve problems. That is why the US was the first (and only) nation to walk on the moon. Those rocket scientists solved problems as they came to them with whatever was handy. The scene in The Right Stuff where they improvised a hookup to the CO2 scrubber showed that kind of thinking. Maybe it comes from our pioneer forefathers who found themselves in the wilderness with none of the traditional solutions available.
My adventure begins in a week. I got my EUC for my M109A3 (deuce with a box) Friday. I am making plans to go to Ft. Riley and drive it home to Denver, 500 miles. My son, who is a partner in the deuce, grew up fetching bolts and wrenches that I dropped through the engine compartment. Now my grandkids will get to do it too, just as soon as they get a bit bigger.