At this stage KISS. Repair the items that need immediate attention. Want to keep the 273 and as much original as possible. The only major conversion I'm looking now is to disc brakes.
Remember even if the f. suspension is all good, bad alignment and uneven tires pressure an make it drive terrible, or wore out steering box.
I would invest in a FSM or find one to download off the puter maybe.
Was originally as well, however the base looks really clean. The underside seems to have been done some time ago as well as the paint its not new or recent. There are hardly any rust spots anywhere except the few I posted, thoroughly went through the car there in out and underneath, even pulled up some of the carpeting. It almost seems that this was someones project in recent past and they stopped at like 70%.
