A few issues found and solved

Well... We thought it was the end. The steering was getting screwy, the brake failure light was on more than off, the brake power assist was intermittent at best, and the car's body certainly didn't see new found hope.

Have no fear!

First Steering...
Turns out the pulley on the steering pump was loose and not the belt wasn't really tensioned very well. This was taken care of by fabricating a tensioner. A few days later the system was 100% again.

Second breaks...
I had figured that all of the break problems stemmed from a leak in the vacuum system, while is part of it, it wasn't the final nail in the coffin. Upon inspecting the underhood and depressing the brake pedal multiple times my Dad (the current driver) noticed that the main vacuum line running from the intake manifold to the brake master cylinder was collapsed. A few dollars later the breaks are better, but not 100%. There are still some leaks which cause intermittent problems.