Nice find, I've never had a 6 but I guess they have good snort!
I too got a deal on a '74 Nova back in the day, that came with "Armstrong Steering"- I removed the pwr steering pump belt and drove it around like that for a few years, then one day decided to replace the bad hose... poured some juice in and it was A-OK, no growl or anything. It's amazing the things people think are hopelessly wrecked when they really aren't... like the Dynasty I picked up once. The guy said his brother owns a transmission repair shop and said the trans was shot... I went out for a look, got it started, tried the shifter, and it pumped fluid out all over the place from a ruptured trans cooler line. So I buy it for $100 and come back with a lil piece of rubber hose, two hose clamps, and a couple quarts of trans fluid. Dah, keep the juice in and it functions PERFECTLY.
I love Tempo/Topaz' because of the abundance of cheap junkyard parts, and when new/rebuilt parts are called for, the parts stores all have them for cheap. But most of all, my experience has been they have above average durability anyway. However, I see the day coming- perhaps not too far off- when parts availability will change as production ended almost 17 years ago. Some stuff is bound to get harder/more expensive to find. Like that $*%&%^$(# HVAC control head.
