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Valves are kind of brittle. Don't beat on them. Read the recent rusty MC rustface thread for help on this exact problem.

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Did you pull the valve covers on the passenger side of the engine? If you haven't yet, do that first. Remove passenger front wheel, remove access panel, remove fuel pump heat shield, remove road draft tube, remove valve covers.

With the covers off you will have a good view of the lower part of the valves and the lifters too. Probably mechanical lifters is my guess. You'll probably be able to see some valves that are stuck.
If the engine turns over by hand that will make this much easier. Otherwise you'll have to do some manual labor to free them up.

Spray the stems with whatever penetrating oil you like. I've found that Freeze Off works best for me...been using it on all vehicles I wrench on and usually gets the tough ones off. Spray some of the penetrating fluid from the top on the valves that are open. If you have mechanical lifters you can manually adjust them up and force the valve up. I honestly have no idea if this will cause other damage (crankshaft or valve stems) but it's the only option I had to free up valves on Rusty, and so far it has worked. If you are having to do this you should remove the valve spring keepers so you aren't fighting that tension. Get them moving up and down a little and then you should be able to work them out.

If you are tapping on the valve heads, do so with a small hammer in the center of the valve. Carefully. I used a larger hammer on one and got a bit too aggressive. Ended up snapping the head off. Getting the stem out will be a huge joy now.

I already have the side cover off for the valves - they mostly started moving after soaking the engine in various fluids over weeks but kept locking back up and got close to starting a few times but never got it.
Given how much gunk was in there probably a good idea anyway to open it up.
can those head gaskets be reused? never dealt with a metal gasket before can't imagine they are cheap.
My current plan is clean it up more and find my deadblow and gently tap the bastards then rotate repeat with plenty of lube involved.
Just need to find that damn thing...

I believe it is best practice to replace the head gasket when you take it off.

If the valves were moving and you were able to turn the engine by hand that is a good sign. Once they get moving they will loosen up. If you are able to get the engine started and keep it running that will get them loose much faster. The engine will run terribly but once it has warmed up the valves will usually start to move freely and then the engine smooths out. If most of the valves are sticky then that won't work. But if it's only a couple you might be able to get the engine to run on a few cylinders and let it warm up.

Otherwise remove the head, turn the engine by hand and keep tapping the sticky valves down while spraying the stems with penetrating fluid. They'll loosen up.

Yeah new head gaskets are not cheap unfortunately. However they are easy to replace in the car.

I would spray this on both sides of the old gasket and throw it back on. It will probably work well enough to test the engine. Once the rest of it seems fine, replace the gasket properly before it gives you issues.

autozone.com/sealants-glues-adhesives-an ... ay-a-gasket-sealant-9-oz/520940_0_0

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You cannot reuse a head gasket. They seal by compressing and once compressed they stay that way so must me replaced each time.