I just did a 97 with 215,000 miles at work today. wasn't very rusty but very muddy. Took about 3.5 hours. taking it apart in certain order helps too.
pull the front bumper&air damn as one piece .. no need to take them apart. pull the upper and lower fan shrouds. disconnect the steering shaft. disconnect the E brake cable at the slip joint mid way under the cab make sure all wires and lines are clear. ONLY! remove driver side bolts at this time 15mm on the cab and 18mm nut at the core support (take out the turn signals and use a 15mm on the bolt heads) and get a 10 inch long piece of 4x4 and use it to help jack the cab up best place i have found is just behind the rocker panel where the front seat bolt comes through the floor jack up right on the bolt it will press into the wood and keep it from slipping out. Jack up slow an make sure you do not break any wires (main place to watch will be driver side firewall area) install lift blocks and loosely tighten bolts. and repeat on the passenger side then tighten all cab bolts. re install fan shroud, bumper, steering shaft, and e brake cable all with relocation brackets. swap sides and turn tow hooks over re install inside the frame with four 1/2 inch washers under them (do this after you put the bumper on or the bumper bolts wont go in) Front is done. Remove driver side bed bolts and rubber gas filler neck cut, extend, re install. lift driver bed side and install lift blocks and loosely tighten bolts. repeat passenger side and tighten all bolts. If you did order the rear bumper bracket (yes it is sold separately) Remove rear bumper (btw the brackets will not come out of the frame until the bed has been lifted) Install relocation brackets and re install bumper. Rear done
follow this and other than severely rusted and/or broken bolts it should go pretty smoothly.