UPDATE:
STRUCTURE:
Over the past 2 days I have made my way into work a few hours early to work on my stand. I was able to borrow a metal chop saw from our diesel mechanic and it made all the difference in the world! I had to make over 30 cuts (some 90°, some 45°) to get to where I am at now.
Here was my cut list that I followed:
This is what I ended up with:
(SketchUp view)
(Actual view)
I took the opportunity to play around with some of the scraps that I had left to get an idea of how the welder was going to behave. As posted earlier, Im not a professional welder so I was a little nervous that my welds would not be a.)
Pretty 
, or (more importantly) b.)
Strong.
Here are my results (these are practice welds on scrap material)
My "not-so-pretty" practice weld:
After grinding smooth:
I probably wont be able to weld all of the pieces into a stand until next Saturday (at the earliest). Im still a good 4-6 months away from my upgrade so I have some time
EXTERIOR COATING:
I have also been looking around quite a bit at the options that I have for the Truck Bed Liner that I want to use as the outer coating. I have not yet gotten pricing for the LINE-X spray on liner, but the price of
THIS STUFF is forcing me to consider it as an option.