I agree, keep it and get the thing running right. My first car back in '54 was a '40 Plymouth with a Dodge truck engine. I milled the head and put on dual exhaust with glass paks. It was loud and had great acceleration. He may have the wrong gearing in the rear end for it to highway cruise though. Those engines are not complicated and he can learn a lot working on it. Clean the body up and put a good paint job on it and he will have a very unique truck.
Boy that motor pic brings back memories. In my youth ( early 50s) my town had a dirt fairgrounds track that was a non-Ford track, no flatheads. So a lot of Mopar six cylinders showed up and ran real well!
Yeah, good lookin, truck, I had Dads ol' 47 Dodge thru hi school, got it up to 95 beating a 48 Olds 98.