Timing / Hood/Fender Alignment

[Chevy00]

I have a '71 Cheyenne w/ 350, quadrajet, no air & automatic - Wondering what I should set timing to - Just installed a Pertronix unit under the dist cap, re-installed & need some good numbers for reasonable power but not too advanced to start properly. Set to 8 deg BTDC w/o vacuum hooked?

Second - I installed a new radiator support (used - excellent shape) and now I'm having a hard time lining up the hood on the passenger side to stay within the space alloted - Wants to crowd fender something terrible & I've noticed that there are no eccentric holes in the hood to accomodate re-positioning from one side to another - How do I take care of this problem?

Thanks in advance - Phil