[davepl]

I would start with a diagnostic on the engine - purchase a compression tester and a leakdown tester (with the latter you may not need the former, but you need the latter). Doing a leakdown test is a little confusing your first time, but its not difficult.

You also need to know how much oil pressure the engine is making at hot idle; a gauge will tell you, but you might need to add one to know.

If your engine passes the leakdown test and has good oil pressure, leave it alone. Do a traditional tuneup on it, rebuild or have the carb rebuilt -if- it needs it.

On the drop, I'm out of my element. You could always do what I did --- learn to like the stock ride height and leave it alone, and not have any headaches :-)

If you're a detail-appreciating kind of guy you could spend weeks or months detailing a driver to make it look like new. If you have a compressor you could invest in a benchtop sandblaster (but a wire wheel on a drill will suffice, though not as nice or fast). Go through and clean, surface, and paint the engine and brackets and all underhood pieces. You will also, in the process, gain experience in where everything goes and in the skills of taking it all apart and putting it back together.

With your engine compartment fully detailed it'll feel faster! More difference than heads and a cam would make on a vehicle this heavy, I think.

If I had my life to do over again, I'd also recommend you take it to Earl Scheib or some other discount paint place and spend the few hundred bucks to get a "10 foot paint job" on it. So many people drive around primermobiles for a decade with the plan of getting that concourse paint job years from now that never materializes.

A cheap paint job in your factory color scheme will turn heads from everyone except the lawn-chair-car-show crowd.