I also have to agree with many of the other comments on the cowl hood. Leave it as a flat hood car and resist the temptation to add the cowl hood. There are so many cowl hood cars out there now that I am personally sick of seeing them. In fact, the car I am restoring right now is a factory cowl hood car and although I have the hood and have restored it, I swapped it out for an aftermarket fiberglass hood and have set the original cowl hood aside.
As for the motor being gone, no big deal. Have some fun and build a hotrod LT1 motor for it. You can make it look dead on stock but will have a lot more power with the added cubes. Pick a good solid lifter camshaft and it will also sound every bit the part. I'd recommend you look at the Comp Cams Nostalgia 30/30 Plus #CCA-12-673-4
Sounds like this.