Thanks for all the great info! We are leaning towards getting the motor running and just leaving it automatic, for now at least. Like I stated earlier, the guy we bought it from claims that it runs great so we need to just clean it up a little bit and figure out why it won't start. I am sure its a combination of (hopefully little) things.
We are going to start cleaning up the frame first and probably working from the back forward. Out of curiosity, what do most people do for a rear end, just leave the stock one or replace with something else? I wouldn't mind having disc brakes, and while the bed is off now seems like the perfect time to switch out all that stuff.