Paint/rust removal

While Don, Don Jr. and Dan get the rods ready for the street(project 3k), I just starting a 48 Ford F1 project. I keep getting side tracked as to where to dive in. The truck has a 460 ford engine that runs good, but cosmetically looks sad. It is ready for a brake conversion to front discs and rear drum,with a power booster master cylinder set up. The wiring is awfull but it starts and runs for now. Worst of all is the fact it was stripped to bare metal and primed 6 years ago, and then left out in the weather/northern Ca. rain for 6 years. So, I'm currently stripping it to metal/rust, then using a rust converter, then sanding followed by an etch primer, and finally primed with a two part epoxy primer. It is a royal pain to do this, but it supposedly will buy me time before I can afford to paint it the way I'd like, without starting all over with new rust issues.
So I'm thinking as I work around the body, when I get to the bed, I'll remove it, do the brakes, and as much of the frame as I can while exposed, then put it back together, attack the wiring, probably with a painless harness, get all the peripherals working, then clean up the engine and underhood areas, before taking it in for a paint job.
So here at last is the question, does this order make sense? Any better approach? I'm not shooting for a show truck, just a good looking truck that is functional to drive and mechanically sound. All ideas from those with more experience would be appreciated. Also I'm trying to keep the budget down, with exceptions to areas that make a difference like a good painter, etc.