[Dan in Pasadena]

I'm not much for "patina" trucks and definitely not anything with the word "rat" associated with it but I see you have a lot of enthusiasm and are making the effort to use quality suspension parts, excellent.

I LOVE those interior pictures you posted. Is that just flat black? Or gloss black with a flattening agent added? It looks great.

If I ever WOULD do a patina truck the frame and mechanical parts etc would be super clean, fresh black whether gloss or semi gloss and based on those interior pix I'd do that too. Then just polish up the exterior to give it the look of a truck that had been "loved" to the point of polishng through the paint to the primer or even bare metal. Just my opinion but patina is polished over the decades, NOT rusted by neglect.

Bestof luck with your build.