a puff of smoke and now nothing 69 valiant electrical issue

I thought he was talking about reversing the BATTERY cables. That would for sure cause "smoke and fire."
not necessarily... positive ground! maybe the radio would have an issue and the heater fan would spin backward! but I bet everything else would work as long as it was still using the old mechanical electronics like VR etc.

My grandfather had an old amplifier for a PA system that was positive ground. just don't set it on the metal of the car. ( it was a 12V powered system)