1. Don't tear it down to re ring it. Waste of time and money and you're not gonna improve on the seal. You mentioned how nice the bores look. What makes you think they're out of spec needing a re ring?
2. Bump up the cam. It's a hotrod right? Get something with a lope and some power.
3. In accordance with the cam, go higher stall than you think you need. Let's say you think you need 2500. Get a 3500.
4. Put the 273 manifolds where they belong. In the garbage can. Get those dougs or TTI or whatever fits. Are the Doug's long tube headers? If so all the better.
5. Agreed on the intake. Upgrade that for sure.
6. Don't bother with bumping compression. Shaving heads etc will create other headaches like intake port mismatch issues.
7. Good call on Oregon cams they have a lot of good reviews from this site.