It's a big back window truck. I say go for it.

Do all the body work first before you tear into the mechanicals. The late model 318 will get it around while you do the body.

It's not a restoration so you don't need much in the way of trim.

If you start on the drivetrain first, or God forbid, a frame swap, you will never finish it. Get the hard stuff done first. Then you will see whether you want to do the cheap route of a dropped axle and redone leaf springs or switching to a different front suspension.

While power steering and brakes are better, they can be done without for a while. I've been driving my '64Dog with stock drum brakes for decades and have put on about 60K miles, or 100K Km. That includes quite a few trips of 600 - 900 miles one way. The stock non-power steering was tightened up quite a bit with new kingpins, tie rod ends and adjusting the steering box. It would steer easier in parking lots if I didn't insist on running 10.50s in front. But it drives down the road just fine. Most of my trips are over the Continental Divide so I see a lot of mountain roads.

The payoff is I'm recycling an old truck (green, you know) and average one compliment a day from strangers. There is a video of it in Italy and pictures of it in France and Germany, as well as Sweden. Plus, good-looking women give me the thumbs-up on the interstate. So my ego gets a boost nearly every time I get into it.

R.