!!! IMO ONLY !!!
If you are wanting a driver only and wish to retain its' re-sale value, I (personally) would stay with the original carb and LOAD-O-MATIC. If you go with a later style carb, you will have to go with a DUAL ADVANCE DIST design and finding a BIRD core w-tach is expensive. The LOM DIST can provide all the performance you need if set-up correctly.
You might want to talk with Sal here if the carb needs to be gone through.
Anything you remove from the engine (say water pump), retain for rebuild as matching numbers will increase the value.
There's plenty of help here so don't let that worry you.