[RTHarvey]

Wow...that story has a familiar ring. A very similar thing happened to me many years ago on a 64 short stepside. Two years in the body shop, and went by the shop one day and it was an empty building with the telephone sitting on the floor. What a mess. I had to do some real detective work, and finally found out the body shop owner (who had done quite a bit of work for me before, and really good work) was in jail, the business was collapsed, and he owed everybody money. Kind of the same deal, he had gone off the rails, and his life had fallen apart. I finally retrieved most of the truck from a small town about 10 miles south, and the bed from another small town about 40 miles east. (he had tried to move the few vehicles that were left in the shop to friends and family houses with the thought that he would recover and re-start his business.) I never found the rear bumper or the glass, a few other misc parts. The body work was mostly done (not quite up to snuff) and the paint was partially done. I finished up myself (couldn't afford to start over). Anyway, I had the truck for another 20 years, and finally sold it about 6 months ago. It was still going but had developed serious rust issues. The good news is that I sold to a guy that owns a body shop so hopefully he will resurrect it. On your question, I always say "keep it stock". Or almost, anyway. As you know, the short wheel base trucks of that era are pretty valuable, and more so if restored to stock. What size I6 did it have? My 64 had a 230ci with a 4-speed. It was OK, but really the 230 is underpowered. In my opinion, the best engine for these trucks is the 292ci I6. LOTS of torque. I had a 292 in a 62 LWB I had 40 years ago or so. Great engine. To me, if a guy is thinking fuel injected V8, auto trans, disc brakes, PS, PB and AC...why not just buy a nearly-new truck? Doing all that conversion is expensive. I would not say that a stock truck would bring more money when you sell, but you will have a lot more money in the extensively modified version than you will in returning it to excellent stock condition. However--although your truck is uncommon, it isn't quite rare, and it is your truck, so whatever you want to do is what you should do. The problem with selling a modified version, is that you won't find another guy that has exactly the some ideas as to what is cool that you do. As they say, stock is always in style.