'73 SD restoration

[SlowPoke]

Greetings Gents,I have a white 1973 SD-455 Trans Am which was my treat to myself when I graduated college that year. Went from a starving student to making a few bucks. Actually bought it in '74 from a starving dental school student after hunting relentlessly for a '73. I didn't like the body style changes made and would have "paid extra" to get a '73.

Anyway....I'm planning out how to restore it (engine has 38,000 miles)and I want more compression but don't want to be cutting any metal. It is worth more unshaven and while I plan to change the cam, rockers, lifters etc I'm keeping all of the old components for whoever owns it next. So,I'd like the opinion of the gang. I want to raise the compression ratio as much as I can without shaving and without changing from a flat top piston. I have a set of TRW's which have compression bumps on but as many publications suggest, they mess up the flame front travel and are not a good change.

Long, long ago and in a land far, far away I had a '65 Chevrolet 327 which I was able to get the compression ratio a few points higher without shaving by using shim-type head gaskets. It took some custom making of intake manifold gaskets to get the geometry perfect but it worked great. What do you think about this approach for my SD?