I would encourage you to work with what
you have. The pros of this might be (my opinion only):
* less work since you are using the same
wiring, engine mounts and so on
* value and integrity of the car maintained
or increased. There were only 32,000 or
so of these made...
* challenge of seeing what can be done to
upgrade a 1958 vehicle
If it's not suitable for daily driving
due to poor mileage, emissions and so on,
perhaps its a different car you need!
Potential improvements that could be considered:
* rebuild the motor. Better compression
should lead to better performance
* different camshaft suited to low end
torque and gas economy
* carb fine tuned for efficiency. In
1958, who cared?
* either better or ported/polished
manifolds, for better efficiency
* improved ignition (coil? solid state?
lots of good stuff out there now) for better
spark -> better mileage
* valve seats and valves can be replaced
with stellited versions so as to run properly
on unleaded gas. They are not terribly
expensive.
good luck!
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