Lead free solder is hard to work with if you're not too experienced with it and also needs a higher temp/wattage iron. A good solder joint with lead free might actually look like a bad joint would with leaded solder. It can look like a cold solder joint for example. After working with it a lot I got the hang of it but for repairing old systems, I'd just stick with leaded solder.
How nice of an iron are you talking about? You could probably get by with a $20 adjustable wattage iron from Radio Shack. For nicer ones...on the low end...when I was working in electronics we had some Hakko 936 soldering stations that were pretty nice. You could probably get one used for around $50 I would think.
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