1975 maverick starting problems

This is about my 1975 ford maverick project. Ok so jerry my mechanic friend came over and he said I need a vacuum hose replaced and where the pickup coil plugs in he said to cut the plug off because the black wire came out and splice in a new plug and it will be good. He also said to replace a donut gasket on the engine and once we get that done he will come back over and set the timing. BUT it runs just need a few things.