What now? (BB for mild performance light driving)

[Gary]

I've had the 72 in the mechanics now and here's what they found:

brakes all around were pretty poor, new rotor on driver's side, turned the one on the passengers, new pads all around, some rust in the back brakes that was cleaned out, brakes should be fine now

front suspension was in ok shape, ball joints had to be replaced, the wrong type of lug nuts on the late model (98 model year) rims, I plan on new rims and tires anyway so I'll ignore this for now

valve cover oil leak minor but it is leaking, I was planning on dressing up the motor so this can wait till I get the dressup parts

oil leak on the rear seal, to fix he said would require pulling the oil pan, mechanic said stop leak(?) might be enough.

transmission leak replaced some seals, he said that some transmission mount or crossmember or something was broke or busted, he said it wasn't really a big deal and he'd probably just let it be (?)

motor is in good shape, carb needs rebuilding they adjusted it but he said it'd almost for sure need a rebuild before many more miles on it.

new plugs/wires/rotor/distributor, little bit of timing adjustment.

Now with that said, it looks like the base motor is sound and sturdy and nothing real major is wrong.

My goal: new paint, new interior, get it looking good, new rims, new tires, probably gonna put a camper shell on it painted to match the truck (or paint the truck to match a shell). I plan on getting a pontoon boat that will get pulled occasionally, the truck itself will get driven "not very much" I put about 6000 miles on my current car in the span of almost 2 years so I don't drive much. I want the truck to have good performance, but I don't want it to idle rough or only have high rpm power, I just want it to scoot if I feel like scooting and to go from one red light to the next without being an aggravation in slow traffic either.

Motor is stock 402BB now, stock exhaust and intake manifold, stock 4bbl carb, pretty much stock stock stock (electronic ignition, no points). So I'm not a mechanic or "engine guru" obviously so what should I do to this motor to make the truck a decent performer but still have good low end torque and pull so stop and go traffic isn't gonna kill me? Transmission is a 4 speed 700R4, rear end I'm not sure I'll try and remember to ask the mechanic when I pick the truck up what rear end is on it, posi, limited slip, etc, and gearing on it.

I talked to the mechanic but he was talking about $600 hooker headers and $125 for valve covers I was like "yikes". But I suppose if that's really the way to go I'll start saving the pennies