Sounds like you're making good progress. On setting the timing, make sure you set the gap/dwell first, then (and I might catch some flack for this) forget the timing light except for initial dial-in, and just keep advancing the timing a little (by turning the distributor CCW) until on a test drive you hear pinging on long accelerations, then back it down just under that threshold. I've got my '54 motor so advanced that I can barely see the ball in the window with a timing light but it starts instantly, accelerates strong, (well, for a 235 it does) and gets better mileage than the "book" timing method.
