I drive a '62 Suburban daily. Other than the blown head gasket you mention, it's the same as your truck. AND I LOVE IT!
If you tell yourself that it's an old truck, and take it as such, then you'll enjoy it. Know that it isn't going to drive fast, it isn't going to stop fast, and it isn't going to perform like a new vehicle, and you will do fine.
Vent windows and kick panel vents are nearly as good as A/C, and I live in Georgia, where it's plenty hot in the summer.
I dropped in a crate motor, overdrive manual trans and a dual-reservoir master cylinder, but they've all been done one step at a time, and I've always driven the truck between projects.
Upgrade the radiator, and add a fan shroud. Nothing worse than overheating.
Upgrade the brakes to a dual reservoir, and upgrade the drums to self-adjuster mechanisms (Haven't done the self-adjust conversion yet).
Change the gears in the rear end to something a little more highway friendly. Especially if you've got a Granny Low 1st gear. Is the '54 an open driveshaft, or torque tube? If it's open, and you can't readily get replacement gears for it, I'd just swap in a new rear end...it's not that difficult, or expensive.
Add a little sound deader to the inside of the doors, under the rubber floor mat, on the firewall and the back wall of the cab. If it has a headliner at all, put some up under there too.
And perhaps most importantly, COMPLETELY rebuild the seat. A worn out seat will cause you more unenjoyable hours behind the wheel than anything. I'm doing a full story on rebuilding seat frames for the next issue of Hot Rod Deluxe. It involves burlap and piano wire, and is the key to a decent vintage driver.
I'm also hunting for a decent power steering set-up for my truck. Armstrong Steering gets really, really old in parking lots.
Even with the truck off the road for several months a year since I bought it three years ago, I've managed to put over 12,000 miles per year on it, many of them with the original 283/Granny 4speed.
And finally, get the AM radio restored and converted to modern electronics. There's nothing more satisfying than driving the Home Depot on a Sunday, along the back country roads, listing to a ball game through the speaker in the center of the dash, with the vent windows open, the door windows down and the kick-panel vents keeping your legs cool.
-Brad
