Update: increasing bounty to 200$ minimum.. need to get the important info out of these wallet.dat files. Is there an easy way to see if they are encrypted? I believe both files are from late 2013
Here is a method.
Take a known good 2013 CORE wallet, unencrypted. Run tests using suggested methods on it and establish what actually works.
Only then try the same known-good technique on the target wallet.