Thanks for the comments. I know I'll have a ton of questions once I get to start working on it.
48jim1ton - probably not. I picked the truck up in Wentzville and headed West for home.
olddaze - the battery is just sitting loose in the bed, right behind the cab. The previous owner made new cables out of heavy guage welding cables.
DADS50 - the wood bed is solid, but pretty ugly. It's older treated wood with no trim strips.
DMGfifty - I've only driven the truck about 200yds (up the driveway and into the barn). The noise seems to be intermittent and only in 1st gear. When I backed it off the trailor there wasn't any noise. In fact, thinking about it, there wasn't any noise when I loaded it on the trailor. When I shifted from 1st to 2nd there wasn't any noise.
Does anybody know if there's a way to move the battery back to its original location, but keep the carpeting?
Also, what's the easiest way to determine what engine it has? I'm assuming it isn't a 216 since the valve cover attaches with 4 bolts at the sides, not 2 through the top.