I went back and forth on this issue a couple of years ago myself. On the one hand, I have never had much trouble with the points set up. In fact, they have been very reliable over the years. I also do not buzz the motor rpm wise beyond the spring tension of the points so have never had an issue with the so-called "point bounce." The point set and condenser are less then $25, last for quite a few years, and are not that difficult to find if you should break down from a failure (which in my experience is pretty uncommon, at least these days where the cars are just not driven like they were when I was driving mine as a daily driver in all kinds of weather and other conditions). Before I put a new motor in the 57 in 2015, the motor that was in it had not been tuned up for probably 10 years. Started and ran no problem. I did not even bother to adjust the points, lol.
Even if I needed to, doing a little basic maintenance on the car is my idea of relaxing. Hey, some guys relax by cutting grass, landscaping, putting little white balls in little holes in a plot of grass, lol, me I like to tinker with the car, go figure.
On the other hand, installing say the Petronix unit would in theory be an install and forget it process. I say in theory because there have been some reported issues and concomitant breakdowns because of a failure of the module. Then it becomes the problem of locating a replacement.
In the end, I opted to have the distributor rebuilt (I highly recommend it for anyone running a real delco distributor, made a world of difference) and to continue running the point set up. Three years later, not a moments problem, including all of the runs I have put on the car down the dragstrip at the last three nationals.
Just my perspective for anyone who is weighing this out.
:bowtier:
