I may not call it restoration but.........

Well, I have been able to find the source of the water leak, turns out that the dumb bastard who assembled the engine forgot to completely tighten the bolt on the lower timing cover, behind the pump inlet, d'oh!!!
Anyway I have filled the cooling system with water and it has not leaked for 6 or 7 days now. Got a 1 inch carb spacer today, downloaded the instructions to wire the MSD box, cleaned up the carb, now get the carb rebuilt and then I should be able to fire it up. I hope.