[BIGphillip79]

$900 for a 96, if its in good shape is a good deal If you can do work yourself. A short block at Autozone is like $800.
I've got an 89 I paid $850 with 2 cracked heads,rust and rash, shot front suspension,fresh built tranny and worn out tires.

I rebulit a motor out of a '99 and replaced the heads. All new everything on the motor,water pump, altenator, belts hoses, ignition, race starter. With all that I ended up with about maybe $2500 in it to have running reliably again. About $250 for cold A/C.
The front susp. rebuild was about $600 with all good parts, Moog, and new cv axles, bearing assembly,gear box, bushings, tie rods etc. Any thing up front I could replace I did. New tires were $650. Now the truck drives easy and I don't have to chase the truck all over the road. The steering wheel had about a 1/4turn of play in it before.
I got robbed on the paint job. DON'T get Maaco. I did a color change from maroon to white and they charged me $1600. The fixed "0" rust or dents. All they did was sand it, mask it, prime it,and shoot it. They didn't pull the grill or bumpers or anything. They just masked. I got a quote from a local guy for better work at half the price but my wife made the arrangement when I was out of town as a surprise. What a good wife.
All together I got about $4000 plus paint for a mostly mechanically new 4x4 pickup I can keep for a long time. Still needs some nickle and dime stuff but all old trucks do.