I shaved the mouldings off of my Wagon ,so I have a full set and a few extra pieces that came with the car. I don't plan on ever putting them back on so I guess it's time to let someone else use them.
I think headers will give you a few more horsepower and make it a little more efficient. plus there is a cool factor. Just my 2 cents. I believe I saw shorty headers on ebay. About $300? Don't know about quality or longevity though...
That's a really nice Wagon! Regarding your Disributor, are the centrifugal weights inside the dist. moving freely? It sounds like they may be binding or sticking causing lack of advance? maybe? But a new distributor will probably fix the problem.