'69 GMC resuscitation

[odis.dunkle]

I’m new to the board. I have been reading threads for several days now, but I am likely to make newbie mistakes (like asking too much in a single thread), so please bear with me.

The story:
My father-in-law is passing his ’69 GMC to my younger son—through me.
Basic details of the truck are in my signature. (I will update it as I get smarter.)
My father-in-law bought the truck when it was 1yo. It was his camper truck and then farm truck. The truck has been undriven since ’94 and has been garaged in a shed in Eastern WA most of its life (read as “negligible rust” and “essentially original”).
My task is to make it mechanically reliable again. The target is for a reliable frequent use vehicle that doesn’t mind getting messy.

And that is where I can use help.
1. Can any of you help me find threads that talk about experiences with ‘waking up’ a Rip Van Winkle truck from a 20 year sleep? And in general, am I foolish to think that a truck this old and this long untouched can be revived to the point of being dependable again short of replacing the bulk of the guts?

I will be visiting the truck this week (and hauling it back within a couple more weeks). I will post pictures and SPID when I get over the Pass.
But I’m hoping this board can help with some details/prep in the meantime:
2. Parts: Am I going to find it easy to locate the parts that will be needed? And more importantly, where should I be looking? Those board members from the Puget Sound area, I would love to hear about brick-and-mortar choices. From the rest of you, sources on the Web would be appreciated. And I got a sniff in a few threads that some of you on the board supply parts, so if you do, shoot me an email/PM please with a description of what niche you serve.
3. Split rims: The truck is currently ‘wearing’ its original split rims. What little I know about split rims says that I should retire the rims in favor of non-split rims. Comments? Any suggestions for what I should be looking for in replacements? How do I find a place that will demount the existing tires so that I can cubby hole the split rims to go with the truck when it someday goes to a new owner? (I do want to try to honor the original designers of this rig, even if it means hanging onto parts that have been pulled off of it during this resuscitation.)
4. Broken leaf spring: During its camper days, one of the leaf springs cracked. How big a deal is this to live with? The truck needs to haul occasional loads (moving day or bulk soil), but it will never be asked to work like it did with a camper on its back.

In the general knowledge category:
5. Being a full length bed that isn’t a stepside, does that make it LWB in the board’s lingo?
6. And with 3/4ton with 2wd, am I going to find that it is a C20?
7. My father-in-law referred to it as a Camper Special, but from reading I assume he actually means Custom Camper. Just what does Camper Special/Custom Camper mean in the actual scheme of things? My father-in-law says that he has been given the wrong water pump and brake pads before because he didn’t specify Camper Special to the parts dealer. Does that jive with actuality, and what other details change from a stock 3/4ton?
8. Can any of you give me the concise version of apples-to-apples? By that I mean what model years will match this engine, body, etc. (I assume I need to get photos posted for the transmission and such to get the full spectrum.)
9. And similar to #8, how interchangeable are GMC’s and Chevy’s around this time frame?

Thanks for whatever help you can give me with the learning curve.