Advice Needed

[nrider]

Let me first give ya'll the run down of the project that I've got going. It's a 1981 Chevrolet C10, 2wd, 305 V8 that I inherited from my grandfather. My great grandfather owned the truck before that and our family is the only one to own the truck. A few years ago I got a new 1998 Z71 and dumped every bit of money I had into that truck . My brother started driving the 81 and about 3 months later blew the motor up. I moved away, got married, blah blah blah and the truck sat in my parents yard for about 3 years. I've now got it back at my house and have started working on it, I've already got a motor in the works and am now doing body work and fixing the rust that I've found.

This brings me to the advice that I need... I want to buy a welder so that I can really get my hands dirty on this rebuild. I originally just wanted to get it driving again and then while getting everything cleaned I started finding rust and I've now decided to just do a frame off on the truck. Since I'm going this far I figured I might as get a welder and learn how to weld so that I can fix the rust and do other body work myself. What type of welder should I get, keep in mind I am on a limited budget and this welder will only be used for this truck and maybe the 98 when I'm done. I've never welded before and I'm seeing alot of different information out there.

Secondly, I'm looking into getting new interior panels and replacement metal panels to fix the rust and any other dirty parts on the truck. I've always gotten catalogs from LMC truck but have seen alot of negative things about LMC on these forums and need to know some opinions of LMC. I've used them for a few things in the past but not much. I've also seen Classic Parts of America in one of the forums; is LMC really that bad, and is CPA any better? If you guys know of any other dealers I need to look into please let me know. I'll be purchasing quite alot of panels and weatherstripping, emblems etc. Basically everything you would need for a frame off. Thanks for reading and I'll be starting a project build forum this weekend to show my progress thus far.