Today was the BIG DAY when we kicked the motor into life. After attaching the carburetor, distributor, generator, coil, fan belt and starter motor we parked Eric's vintage tractor beside the truck to jump-start from its battery. We didn't connect the radiator. Then we rigged up a temporary gravity fuel tank (no fuel pump yet) and guess what! She actually started!! She ran beautifully for 15 seconds until we killed it and gave ourselves a big pat on the back!
We may have an issue with the oil pump, as there was no oil spurting out of the holes in top of the valve rockers. We will have to keep an eye on that. Also we need to recondition the starter motor and fuel pump.