Being a slightly older bloke, I always liked the raised white lettering on tires, probably a carry over from the white walled tires back in the early days.
G'Day fellow Kiwi, that's a nice looking truck. I found with the quad headlights that I had to lower the right hand lens to keep it from blinding oncoming drivers.
It sounds like one of the ball joints is dry to the point of seizing. It would be easy to drop the tie-rods and check whether it's steering or the upper/lower ball joints. Whatever it is it's definitely seizing and needs replacing before driving again.
Down here, and in Aussie, we have amber turn signals that work independently of the brake/park lights. As a new vehicle it was required to meet the Aussie regulations. The big problem with buying a converted vehicle is not knowing which parts were used and which parts were custom made when doing...