Welcome back to hot rodding! Congratulations!
Advance the timing. This will help with starting and add noticeable pep to the engine/car.
There is a full blown thread on this.
Excellent street carb. A 650 will do you well.
An OEM cast iron 4bbl intake is probably the cheapest followed by an Edelbrock Performer. No mods needed for ether intake. You MAY (I didn’t ever need to do this mod….) need a square metal spacer for the AVS carb which Edelbrock sells.
Do use a thick .333 or so Edelbrock carb gasket to keep the carb cool and avoid fuel percolation to a minimum. I see this gasket as a must. It mimics the factory carb to intake gasket Chrysler used.
Nothing wrong with points. Find quality parts to use. Adding a MSD (which I can’t stand) or equivalent multi spark ignition will aid in quicker, better starting and fuel economy.
Just ask the board and don’t worry about nothin.