Want to buy another truck, 2wd!

[Destructo]

Alrighty, I already have my 85 4x4 and soon as I fix its important parts that really need attention like gears then i'm going to try and save all of the cash I can (about 250 a paycheck and 19 so I get to spend it all on play stuff!) I figure I could pickup a decent truck with a fairly decent body for 1000-1500 with a bad drivetrain or something. I was thinking a th350 would be good and using the factory 4 bolt 400 which is fresh with a .030" over bore and fully machined, cleaned and painted and on the engine stand right now. I am going to lower it also and thinking about getting a 73-80 model and maybe putting a 81-87 front clip on it. reason for the earlier model truck is so I don't have to pass emissions testing and I can with whatever carb and cam I want and not have to worry about emissions. I will probably setup the motor with enough compression it will have to have 93 octane fuel.

Give me some opinions on what you guys think I should do with a 2wd truck, either long or short bed.