Ok quick question my underhood is a mess. all that emissions crap and all. it's a 84 2.8 and what all can I dump off that motor to clean it up. let me guess get a manual choke holley 350 and all the carb wires are gone.

 

If you don't have to do emissions, you can dump all the AIR crap. That cleans the bay considerably.
Also, just because you have a CC carb setup, doesn't mean you can't keep it and have a nice looking bay.
I spent many an hour rewiring my whole engine bay so you couldn't see any of the wiring to the engine. Here's the result of really hating to look at wires...
http://www.deadbird.org/a/c07.jpg
(pic is kind of old and bay wasn't done but, sanitary wiring is still the same though other things have changed)
Hiding wiring and cleaning the engine bay is only determined by the effort you're wanting to put forth.