JoeF,
With regard to distributor recurving - have you considered an HEI? I'm going to use a small body HEI distributor conversion from Daves Small Body HEI (
www.davessmallbodyhei) on my 462. Check out the pictures and info on his website. For what you would spend on a Mallory or MSD unit you can have yours (or any rebuildable core) converted with custom recurving in a totally stock-appearing, "stealth" distributor.
Just an option to consider.
http://kurtspontiac.homestead.com/TimSimpson66GTO.html