New to me 87 c10. Some questions

[LT7A]

Wow, that's a neat truck! Very cool that you are putting it back into regular service. I'm 98.34% certain that you can put that qjet on there with no problem. I would do some searching and read up. I have electronic spark control from 1982 but have left it intact on purpose. I don't know if you have interest in that, is the ECU gone? I like the idea that I can time it for performance, and have the timing retarded if I ever encounter pinging in the mountains or a batch of bad gas.

There are some spectacular results from cut and buff, but if your paint is chalking, it means also that it is going to be wearing thin. On these old rigs I do everything by hand. Maximum shine is less important to me than preserving the paint that's there. It gets shiny enough, and my target is good luster, rather than ultimate reflectivity. That said, I think once you get it cleaned well, one of the new sealer products like the ceramics may even bring the shine up a notch.

I recommend meguiar's number 7 as a treatment for your oxidized paint. Try to get some moisture back into it by hand.

For what it's worth, here's what I like to do, all by hand, panel by panel:

Careful wash
Iron decontamination
Clay bar
Meguiar's number 7 until it stops taking more product or changing in appearance
Meguiar's ultimate compound, but I might skip that step if paint is getting thin, possibly on your passenger door
Maguiar's ultimate polish
Meguiar's cleaner wax
Skip the last step if you're going to use some other type of sealer.

You can see more clarity and brightness in the paint with each step. It removes the minimum of paint and so it is something you can do every year, with just a wax or a reseal in between, without worrying about taking off too much paint.