so i pulled my bed off my 89 pickup last week to build a flatbed.. got most of it done in a day but while the bed was off i noticed the shocks are rusted through and im surprised there still in one piece also the brake lines are looking a little crappy.. so i order up new shocks a roll of brakeline and all the fittings i need.. so i go to see how the nuts will come of seeing that they look like crap i figured would be a pain in the ass.. but to my surprise they all loosened up nice.. but the backing plates for the rear drums look like crap.. so i pull the wheels to find a mess.. the e brake has been locked up for at least a year.. so the drums and shoes and pretty much everything are shot.. plus the backing plates look like ˟˟˟˟ and the little cover is completely rotted away.. so im at a crossroad here.. this is supposed to be my budget dd truck and iv already spent about 500 on the shocks, brake lines/fittings, wood and hardware for the flat bed.. so im running out of funds and have an angry girlfriend in the house.

to replace the backing plate i think i gotta pull the axel to pull out the axel shafts to be able to get the backing plate off.. so i stand here wondering if i should replace everything with oem parts or just buy a complete used axel with a good brakes or just button it back up and go without rear breaks because that has been what was happening the last year or so since i bought the truck(this is not a real option lol).. idk what i should do with this thing.. trucks been great to me for a year but lately ˟˟˟˟ seems to be hitting the fan

 

used if it were me but ive got a couple parts trucks and am poor

 

Get backing plates from someone down south.

If your replacing brake line you may as well do the fuel line as well look at that I bet just as spooky as the brake lines.

I hope you used the copper nickle line that they say is not supposed to corrode.

My question is just how is the frame??

If she was a good girlfriend she would be helping last one I had I traded for a Engine builder head with a Cam I feel I came out ahead.

 

Lol..
Frame looks good.. worst place is the rear crossmember.. but im gonna sand it down an paint it to try and stop the rust..

Fuel lines do not look nearly as bad.. thinking they may have been replaced already?