Looking for rebuild advise

Is the $500 in addition to the money spent on the machine work so far?

So no cams with the engines? If so, were the lifters numbered to stay with the lobes? If not then you need to get a set of regournd lifters to use the cams; if you mix even one lifter and lobe, then the cam will very likely lose a lobe. A torque cam and reground lifters will run you around $250 from Doug Dutra; so if you have a stock cam with the lifters matched (or get reground ones from Doug Dutra), then I'd stick with that to keep close to budget. You need to put $$ into the head with valves, guides, etc., or you are going to have poor operation even with the new rings and pistons.

The cams of your vintage have more lift than the older cams so are better. Makes sure you put new cam bearings in the block; old ones can lose oil pressure quite a bit.

If you have both oil pumps, disassemble them and check the wear/scoring inside and measure clearances and pick the one with the closest clearances.

Due to budget, get a new stock type timing chains and sprockets. Cloyes makes one.

Are both your carbs 1 BBL's? If one is a 2 BBL, use that.