At the 1 o'clock when looking at it from the front

 

You have it right - you don't need to crank the engine to a particular point to swap the distributors. All you have to do is point the new rotor in the same direction as the old rotor. (Be sure not to turn your engine over in the middle of the swap or you will have to find TDC.)

You will be able to check your own timing and carb mixture with a simple timing gun and vacuum gauge. I believe you can get both from a mail order place like Summit for around $50. They're nice tools to have in the garage.

If you're not confident and you trust the shop, then you might just ask the shop to perform them for you. Shouldn't take much of his time or cost you much.

Good luck.

 

i assume this will be where plug 1 goes?

thanks.

 

You got it. (This is assuming it was cylinder 1 that was set to TDC.)

 

I have a Pertronix II distributor on my 65 and an very happy with it. Yeah, please dump that air cleaner. I think its probably just about the worst one ever made. Get a nice round one and a good Wix or similar filter element.