Wow ... that's some dangerous stuff!
My 54 wasn't as bad as that, but it was close. I was driving it at night (one eve when I first got it) and the headlights went out ... a minute later they came back on ... then, all of a sudden, it turned into the 4th of July under the dash -- an empty light socket was bouncing around and grounding as it bounced -- hahaha!!! Talk about shocking experiences, eh?
I'm not restoring but hotrodding, so I got an EZ-Wire kit and rewired the entire truck. You can see my 10-day photo diary at my site (link below sig).
I found bare spots on wires that were rubbing against metal for years all over the truck!