Feeling in over my head and not sure what to do next

[un4gvn!]

That looks to be a Quadra jet. It should say on the side what it is. I've used them on a lot of my muscle cars and trucks. They are not hard to work on. My main issues with them is when I gave it gas, there would be a slight hesitation which always indicated a bad accelerator pump. Easy fix. Another problem with the choke was the vacuum choke pull-off. Suck through to make sure the diaphragm doesn't have a hole in it. Are you running a mechanical or electric fuel pump? You mentioned your fuel pump was just off the side of your drivers seat. All older Chevy v8's have the mechanical fuel pump on the passenger side towards the front of the engine. If that is where your fuel pump is, you can purchase a hard line custom bent just like the factory put on them. I used the brass filters that usually came in the carb with never any problems. I would use carb cleaner and reinstall it with no issues. They also make a paper filter for them. If you would want to use a inline filter, mount it before the fuel pump. This would also protect your fuel pump. I also see a vacuum hose about 2 or 3 inch's long with a hose clamp on the end on the front. You can buy the little rubber nubs to plug the vacuum ports you aren't using. They are really cheap and look more professional. You want all your fuel lines and hoses to flow very easily. Any sharp bends or kinks is going to hurt the performance of the engine. If your mechanic bought the proper rebuild kit, that engine should run like new. The biggest problem when people rebuilding these carbs, they get intimidated by all the parts and gaskets in the kit. They cut corners and don't use the proper pieces. Also I've seen when they clean them, they pay more attention to the outside of the carb instead of the inside. The inside is what matters most. Also make sure the float is set right or the carb will not function properly. If your not really sure you want to use the Quad and you are going to buy a new carb, go with a Quickfuel. GREAT carb right out of the box. Easy to work on. I hope I shed some light for you.