I am still a little onfused on your plans. Are you going to make it into an electric driven vehicle with a diesel generator? or a traditional hybrid? I would recommed the first. A full sized vehicle would be more practical, but a newer one woule be even more practical. Your old truck was made in a day that everthing was made as heavy as you could make it. Steel everywhere... Your final conversion can weigh at least twice what the original curb weight of the truck was. as far as motors and acceleration, you can use a dual DC motors to get amazing power. Netgain technologies makes a motor called the transwarp 11 which has an output shaft the will connect directly to a driveshaft that leads into a rear axle. The transwarp 11 also has the ability to accept a second warp 11 motor on the rear of it, with will double your horsepower and torque. I am running a double motor setup in my little car with a transwarp 9 and a warp 9. This motor configuration yields around 850 Ft/lbs of torque! and around 450 hp (ice equiv.)! My 4dr sedan goes 0-60 in 3 sec. And that is with 9"motors. If you did 11" motors you could easily pop a wheelie in your truck (: if that is too much power then you can always dial down the power with your motor controller, with the piece of mind that you have the power if you need it, towing or what have you.