That old truck started up today-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy0xIjZTJU8
Running on gasoline in that video, but we've still got a ways to go. I put a new wire harness in it and we had to replace the wire between the bottom and top plates in the distributor because it was grounding out on the distributor body. It is still running kinda rough, but there is a vacuum leak at the line for the windshield wiper and it seems the carb gasket didn't seal at all, so it's sucking air through there too. I'm sure it will improve after addressing those issues and letting it warm up.
The water pump is really really tight and even after greasing and soaking in PB blaster it does not want to spin free. But it turns out that radiator actually is good... holds water and wasn't full of junk somehow, so we cleaned it out and will run it. We didn't have any hose clamps big enough for the new hoses I bought (durr) so we couldn't go much further today. I am really confident the truck will drive, though.