well, i joined this forum with deep anticipation, with the turn in my stomach that this opportunity that fell into my lap could just as easily go *puff*. well today, my dream of owning a classic vehicle became reality!!
here are some updated pics, including vin and glovebox too. also, i luckily ran into my mechanic neighbor here at my apts, and he took a look under my hood. i asked him about what air cleaner i needed, and his response was music to my un-mechanically-trained ears: "well, any 4 barrel air cleaner would do... but get a chrome one!" i believe he said "looks like a rodchester", or something like that.
http://www.dfwlp.org/~jhorne/pics/truck/
man, and it sounds great too! ill probably get a recording of some sound bites this week, but not that it will have the same exhaust system when i get done. drives pretty good, squeaks as expected, and blows blueish (oil burning?) smoke when its under heavy acceleration. steering is nice and smooth, something i didnt expect.
i pulled up the cracked floor covering on the passenger side, to get a look at the floor, and all this dirt like substance spilled out. ill probably slice whats left of it off and sweep it out so i can get an idea of how much floor pan i still have. rear end appears to be a 12 bolt.