Welcome! I, as well, am a '49 1-ton express owner/driver (the truck in the homepage flag is mine). You may not have to do all that much to your truck to achieve your goals.
I found that replacing the king pins, rebuilding the steering box and redoing all the drag link joints was nearly as good as power steering (notice the word "nearly"...
). On the engine, like the guys said, a '54 or later 235 or even a 261 will give you a lot more power than the babbitted 216. My truck has it's original babbitted 235 (optional at the time), original wheels and tires and I can cruise comfortably at 50-55 and can dash to 60 mph now and then.
A few simple upgrades to your truck will make 60 mph cruise a reality without getting crazy about it.
Truckernix -- did those 4:10 gears form the '71 go into the original housing or did you replace the whole shebang back there?
1-tons are great. Just enough different (longer and taller) than the 1/2-tons to stick out in a line up. And you can actually do stuff with them (1/2-tons are great if all you want to do is haul a cooler and a couple of folding chairs to the wine tasting party ...
JUST KIDDING 1/2-ton guys)
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Welcome to the hobby and welcome to the 'Bolt!
Regards,
John
