Need some help with diagnosing my car. Young guy learning

My first suspect would be the firewall connector. It's a large black plastic connector on the driver's side kinda sorta under the master cylinder. I caint remember on that one, but it either has a bolt in the center or maybe a clip on each side. At any rate, remove it and closely inspect the brass terminals inside it. They are probably nasty, corroded and possibly even burned or meted. That's where I would "start".
Same here with my old 71, it overheated and melted. Sometimes it died on me and I would have to jiggle the red hot wire. Ended up having the thing rewired.