June 2019:
Made some more progress. Added lighter advance springs to the HEI. Invested in a timing light with tach and adjusted the carb. This was a very worthwhile investment, I certainly got a much better tune than I could have achieved by 'ear'.
Now its actually got a bit of power! More off the line, more midrange, and actually will rev up through 5000 if you want. I've got some different jets/needles for the carb I'll try soon, but for now I'm going to actually drive it a bit.
Installed a tach and new window washer tank/pump (stock one was cracked and had to move anyways for the AC pump).
I took an automotive electrical class at the local community college. We had an 'open lab' night and got to use their AC machine to get the AC charged. I was happy to see I had zero leaks. It was blowing 35 degree air!
I do wish I'd gone a bit more aggressive with the cam. I would've like just a bit of a lope, and of course more oomphf. However I was limited by the very low compression stock heads, and I've gone too aggressive in the past and know how its worse than being to conservative. I still think its really fighting its too-tall gears (3.08s). So the 4.10s should wake it up, the tradeoff being 2800 rpm at 65mph.
Still need to do the lift and axle swap. Have to cut the spring pads off, which is kinda a pain in the ass.