For $33K you are buying someone else's dream, a dream that you readily admit is not your own. If you think that buying a chassis and building it from the tires up is expensive, just wait til you start sinking cash on top of the $33K initial investment! This whole discussion reminds me of the old saying, "decisions are made with the heart and later justified with the head". I think that you have your heart set on this truck and now are looking for some rationale to justify it.
I recently bought a 1940 Ford coupe...this car has been on my "bucket list" since high school. I too looked at everything that was for sale from the piles of rusted mid-matched parts all the way to finished cars with shiny paint. When I finally found the car that I now own it was in just the right state of completion and at the right price. This is a purchase that I will never regret because every dollar I put in it moves it closer to MY dream...and none of those initial investment dollars have been wasted by having to replace pieces of the PO's dream. Good luck.