I'd go with rebuilding the stock suspension,take some leaves out of the springs,get good shocks,get a dropped front axle,and change it over to disc front brakes and tapered roller wheel bearings.A good front sway bar would be good. It'd be worth getting the 3.55 gearset for the stock rear too. If you really wanted to,there's a kit available to replace the stock transmission with a Saginaw car four speed and keep the closed driveline.The beauty of this line of thinking is these things are largely bolt together parts,not a real lot of fabrication involved. As a result,you'll have a reliable truck when you're done,and will be more easily able to maintain and service the brakes and suspension.
When you get done with these mods,you'll probably be into your truck about the same amount of money as if you did the S-10 frame,trick rear end,rebuilt front end,etc,maybe less,but I think you'd like it more. (I know I would.)
It's your truck-you'll have to decide what you need or want on it. There's enough parts,conversion kits and tech lines out there to do pretty much anything you want to on your 49.Just be sure to think things through before you start pulling it apart,and it helps to take lots of pictures as you go;you can refer to them as assembly is done to verify locations and positions of parts.
Speed
