In my search to find a truck that is a) practical and b) not boring, I
ended up looking at a '72 F100 short box this evening.  What a cute
little truck, although it ended up being a lot rustier than it appeared
in the pics.  Such is life.  Fortunately, what it really needs is a
front clip (mostly rad support and inner fenders, along with some
patches on the rear of the outers) and door skins, and all of same seem
readily available except for the hood.  Box is solid but has some rust
at the seam on the outer skin which could probably be blasted and
repainted.  It's a runner, too, and has current inspection (although I'm
curious about whether it'll pass again with the sheetmetal so swiss
cheezy... I'd call it solid, but barely.)

Questions.

1) The brakes were, quite frankly, pathetic.  I'm used to driving my
Studebakers which have pretty good 11/10 inch drums; this truck did not
stop anywhere near as readily.  Is this normal for non-power drums on
this model truck, or does it need a brake job?  (I'd prefer you told me
the latter, because if this is normal, I'm gonna have to swap to power,
discs, or both.)

2) What in your opinion is a fair price for a presentable, running truck
with some rust issues that will need to be addressed "sometime" - truck
is mostly original but has been converted to a floor shift.  Drivetrain
is 302/3-speed/9 inch.  Will probably need full lube service/repack
bearings/etc. but otherwise ready to go, with the exception of brakes
mentioned above.  No options at all that I could see.  I think the
owner's asking price is a little high, but I don't want to say what it
is so as not to prejudice responses.

As you can probably tell, I'm kind of taken with the little bugger and
am considering going with "old and cool" over "new and boring yet
practical."  Could use some gentle advice though as Fords are not my
area of expertise.

thanks,

nate