Truck choosing advice needed

[jeromio]

I've been hunting for a 67-72 SWB. I've found some LWBs, but around here the shortboxes are hard to find - well, for reasonable prices that is. I currently have 2 trucks to choose from. One is a 68 that supposedly has decent and recent (2003) paint with no rust. However, the color is burgundy (bleh) and it has 3-on-tree, manual steering and manual 4 wheel drum brakes. He wants $4500. No pics and I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. The other one is a 1970. Pics are here: http://jeromio.com/trucksearch (erg, crazy gallery thing - that's not a direct link, you have to click on the 1970morgantown link). This one has th350, discs and PS and he wants $3K for it. Has lots of rust in some bad spots. But he has another cab to go with it. Now, I do not need another project right now, but it seems like fixing the rust spots on the extra cab and at some future point swapping it over wouldn't be a terribly bad project. The alternative is to get the other truck, spend 50% more money and then swap discs and PS on that one (and live with the color - not that orange is that much better). Both trucks would need paint at some point. Both are 350SBC and supposedly run well (have not investigated yet).

I need the truck to haul some stuff in the short term (for one of my other projects). So being able to drive it now is important. I've driven no PS, manual drum vehicles before and it's not pleasant. But then, it looks like the tailgate and driver door hinge area are in pretty bad shape on the other truck. I could probably do some quick welding fixes on that stuff .

Opinions from the experts? I know ppl are going to say "just keep looking". I know, but I have been and it's really slim pickings for a fleetside SWB at <$10K and almost impossible for <$5K (I don't like the stepsides). You might also say "up your buying budget and save $$$ in the long run". I know - and I've learned and re-learned that lesson before also. I really need a hauler now though and most all of my spare dollars are going to this other big project. You might also say just get the LWB, sell it after the short term need is over. That's probably a smart move too, but I really want a SWB .