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For your rust spots, I would either wire wheel them, grind them lightly(grit disc or scotchbrite disc), or carefully sandblast the area. After it is clean of rust, try using Dupont Metal Conditioner 5717S. It'll help eat away any rust deep inside the metal you cannot get to, as well as preventing it from bubbling up after paint. A good etching primer and proper prep work will keep rust away.
And if you're looking for a good flat black paint, go with Dupont Hot Rod black. Not a big dupont user myself but those two products do work great. If you can find an autobody supply store in your area that sells dupont, they will also sell Nason paint and supplies. Which is just the off brand of Dupont. Same shit different lable.

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'75 LUV Mikado '79 LUV 4x4

Been having fun and making progress in cleaning and polishing up some external parts. I'll show some picture soon. But at this time I'm cleaning the rear taillights unit. The bottom socket is rusted. My thought is to use some steel wool and some fine sand paper and go at it.

Does anyone have a much better solution?

I use a rotary tool(Dremel)with a fine stone.

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"You can't please everyone,so you've got to please yourself"

I agree, Dremel or maybe even a light sandblasting with everything disconnected. Light sandblasting.

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'75 LUV Mikado '79 LUV 4x4

I have a wire brush I broke out of a battery terminal cleaning tool. It is about the right size and the metal end that I broke free of the tool fits into the chuck on my cordless drill. Those tools are pretty cheap, just look for one that has a wire brush on one end and the battery post cleaner on the other.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

Great suggestion being that I would not need to buy a dremel. Thanks

The reverse light socket seems to always be rusty on these things. The rubber rots and any moisture ends up in the bottom of the whole light set. I slathered all of mine in bulb grease and it seemed to help keep them good for a while at least.

At one point I did cut out a template for making new gaskets for the lens. Many years back I made some for the front turn signals out of an old inner tube. Last time I checked they were holding up ok still.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

Yeah, those reverse sockets do get pretty rusty and I think the moisture gets to them more than the other sockets because they are at the bottom and that oval opening is there for the wire harness. I ended up cutting out the old ones and bought new sockets and used the JB Weld on them and it worked great. I read that tip here years ago. I also always thought about coming up with some sort of rubber grommet to plug that hole for the wire harness to keep moisture out, but I never went any further than just pondering it. It might not even be cost effective to have them made.

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http://www.purerockradio.net/

Thinking ahead, being that the pickup bed is rusted out and the sides have quite of bit of rusts. I'm thinking of maybe switching to the other kind of bed, if I can find one in non rusted condition. I do not know what it is called. It has the wheel-wells showing.

What are the considerations?

1) Is it bolted or welded?
2) Any changes to the gas tank inlet?
3) Does the Step Bumper still work?
4) Same Side Running Lights?
5) Can I use my existing tail gate?
6) Tail Lights the same?
7) How about the license plate light?
Any Wiring issues?
9) Anything else I left out?
10) Whats a fair price?

Sounds like you are looking for a stepside bed. They are hard to find, expect to pay up to $500 for a clean one. All of the lights are differant, they should come on the bed. The bumper will still work but sometimes the brackets need to be modified. Tail gates are completely differant and the beds are a bolt on item. The fuel filler hose may need to be modified.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Weren't the LUV stepside beds a dealer option in the West coast states? I haven't seen any LUVs with step side beds here in the Northeast, but then again I never seen any other LUVs around here except for mine! What about welding in diamond plate for the bottom of the bed to save it? Maybe make a frame and put in oak boards like the old trucks had. I am sure I have seen photos of this in a LUV somewhere here on the site. Just a thought.

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http://www.purerockradio.net/

Yes StepSide was the name. I didn't care for them in 76 but now they have character. Well thought I would post some pictures of the parts I cleaned up. I had to make some gaskets for the front and rear lens. It was my 1st lens making project. Wan't too tough and they came out pretty good. The only 1/8 inch gaskets were in red. 1/16 was in black but I figured the gaskets arent' seen anyways.

The next think I need to do is to move all the stuff away from it and to bring it out where it is accessable. But here are some pictures of the parts I cleaned.

Pictures cont.

Cleanedup and painted the headlight benzels. First I steel wooled the chrome ridge that goes around the headlights. Them I steeled wooled the rest to take of the dirt and any pitting. Cleaned off wtih a wet cloth to pick up all the steel wool filings. The sprayed painted it with semi flat black, for I had a left over can. Came out pretty good.

Nexr I'll go after the front grill.

how did you make your tail lights look so perfect?! where they just already in good condition?

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'78 2wd LUV, Betsy, THE LUV MACHINE

After cleaning all the dirt off, there was a haze on the lense. I used my left over bottle of PlastX (Clear Plastic Cleaner & Polisher). It removes fine scratches, cloudiness & stubborn oxidation. I can't remember where I got it from , but Meguiar's is the brand name. I've seen Meguiar's in auto stores, just call around.

If you have a deep scratch, it will even remove them if you push a bit harder and long enough, pace yourself.

What I have done in the past several times is use a hole saw with no drill bit to cut around and remove the bad socket. Then use that same hole saw to remove a good socket from a turn signal on a spare housing. Put the good socket in the reverse hole and use your favorite epoxy or JB weld type product to hold it in place. It's worked great for me on several Luv trucks.

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1978 LUV Custom - 1979 LUV stock

Looking good! I recently cleaned out the tail light bulb sockets. (The reverse light socket was extremely rusty). After cleaning it well with a battery brush and fine sand paper I used a piece of wire and grounded the socket to the frame. (simply put the bulb in while holding the wire to the inside of the socket and bolted the other end to the bed of the truck) This worked amazingly well and there are frame bolts holding the tail light fixture to the bed which are very close to the lights...

I want to clean and repaint the grill. Does the 2 chrome strips at top and bottom come off? It does not look like it comes off. If it does how, if not I'll just spray and then steel wool it afterwards.

You could just tape off the chrome pieces...

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'75 LUV Mikado '79 LUV 4x4