A Body Road Trip Car

i'd go with a 360 over a 318/273 if i was starting from scratch for the potential to build for gobs of torque in the low to midrange and the reason that it is just so much easier to do with the bigger motor.

i was gonna say that a magnum motor would be ideal here, but the choices on cams that are reasonable is pretty scant and the intakes are basically performer RPM air gap or single plane hi rise, which you absolutely don't want. but the RPM could be okay, i guess.

my choice would be an automatic OD over a stick because in the event of a breakdown you're much more likely to find parts or somebody able to repair it over a stick.

if you nabbed a 360 2bbl intake you could run that. but i'd go with a 4V dual plane like a performer or weiand, keeping the ports small to match the small port/valve 360 heads.

top it with a small vacuum 2ndary holley, and round it out with factory EI and some headers.

rear end gear and tire height are going to be critical choices that need to be taken in consideration with what your operational cruise RPM is going to be in conjunction with your tune. you may need an additional timing control to get enough timing at cruise to be efficient.

brakes and suspension wise i'd go stock 73~76 10.8 discs with sliding calipers, 10 X 2.5 drums out back and the 15/16 2 bolt master off of a mid 90's dakota. that way if you ahve any sort of problem you can walk into literally any autoparts store and they'll likely have repair parts on the shelf. t-bars i'd probably say 890's would be the best all around choice with some monroes or gabriels. i'd run a stock front sway bar, and forgo a rear bar. factory stock HD rear springs. up front rubber LCA bushings, offset uppers, and poly strut rod bushings. probably upgrade to the larger 11/16 tie rod sleeves.

wheel are a consideration here because of sizing availability. 15's or 17's would be your best bet to have the widest choices.

i'm sure i'm forgetting a bunch of stuff here, but that's where i'd start. i build most of my cars and a lot for clients to be road trip machines, so there's always something that you wish you'd done and you wind up doing on the next one.