You say that saving funds are a high priority and you want to develope better old truck skills.
But buying other people's castoffs and then paying machine shops just seems a bit counter to those goals.
Will the guy who has your truck now let you pop the head and check things out for yourself so you actually know what your cylinders really look like?
You could even 'practice' doing a hone and ring set while your at it to see if that helps your smoke situation.
Either way what smoke I saw in your videos was nothing as far as "She's getting ready to blow captain!" So I say drive it till it does... pick up and rebuild your next one while you wait for that day to come.
And unless you have another welder why get rid of that one? They are way too handy to have around an old truck.
