looking for 318 tips and advice

Hey so, I got a 76 Plymouth Volare coupe. AC car and has power steering, pretty sure its numbers matching with a 318, I believe I am the third owner, the story I was told was that the car belong to the guys uncle who bought it new in 76 and in i believe it was 84 they put it in the barn where it sat till he died and then the nephew got it and sold it to me, anyways i owned it for about a year n a half and well I was gonna leave it alone until someone with no insurance crashed into it so now i have put new panels on it and gonna paint it in the spring so now my plan is to build it into a fun street machine. so i was curios if yall have any suggestions on what to do with it? id like to keep the 318 but make it a lot more fun than the factory smog engine puts out. I am planning on just rebuilding the rear end and putting in 3.23 gears with a LSD and probably keep the 904 trans and just upgrade it since it seems that mopar parts in my area are kinda hard to come by. I aint got a very big budget and the paint job is gonna run me a pretty penny so if yall have low buck tips id greatly appreciate it
I'm assuming its a 2 barrel carb? On the cheap, I'd say start with a 4bl carb/intake and a good flowing exhaust will pep it up.