Help? Weird ignition (points) problems - '68 220

[aircap]

Howdy again...

If you've been reading my other posts, you know I've been doing an ignition tune-up bit by bit on my car, and that my old set of points were completely shredded. I put new ones on, but mistakenly gapped them a little too tightly at first (I looked at the wrong spec in the manual), and today set out to widen the gap.

I discovered that the points are not seating up evenly for some reason...I mean, the round faces of the points should contact one another pretty much full-on square, but they don't. They are a little crooked from one another, and as a bonus, it looks like metal is migrating from one point to the other; one side is already slightly hollowed, and the other has a little bump! What the hell!?

Added to this misery is the fact that the wee ground strap running from inside the distributor wall to the breaker plate has come loose from the plate and I can't get it reattached. I soldered it, but it wouldn't stay. How is the car running at all when that gets loose...is it just arcing to ground? That would explain the weak engine performance, I suppose. Anybody have any tips for how to reattach the ground strap to the advance plate?

Help me if you can, I'm feelin' down (and I do appreciate your bein' round).