I would recommend your last option, as well. Just be judicious/cautious about which "beater" you select. You don't want to be spending all of your available time and resources working on your beater.

I did exactly that recently. Got a 4WD for the winter (I thought). I went through it to fix all the problems (I thought), the then the auto trans. went out because the radiator failed and flushed the tranny with coolant --ouch!

Now I'm just selling the "beater"----and going back to working on the 41 ---which is what I want to do anyway. smile

Good luck!!

~ Victor
1941 3/4-Ton Pickup (in process). Read about it in the DITY Gallery
1955 Grumman Kurbside "Doughboy" 235/3 on tree w/ OD
1957 3100 - moved on
1959 C4500 Short Bus "Magic Bus" - moved on
1959 G3800 1 Ton Dually "Chief" - moved on
1958 C4400 Viking "Thor" ~ moved on to fellow Bolter