Update - What I mistakenly called the metal strip was actually some sort of thin rigid gasket material to insulate the points spring from the dist. housing so I am actually back to square one. Still trying to figure it all out.
Its JimG’s fault.
We have ignition! I received the new ignition switch from Jim Staib this afternoon and within a 1/2 hour it was installed and the engine fired right up! The confusing thing is that with the old switch I did get 12v to the coil when the switch was on but then nothing when trying to start. Many thanks to all that contributed to my topic and especially Mike and Zak from Maritime Classics who finally figured out the puzzle.
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It sounds as though your points may be shorted to the case of the distributor. I would take a voltmeter and connect the positive side to the terminal coming out of the distributor and the negative side to ground. With the distributor cap and the ignition switch on open and close the points. With the points closed you should show about 0 V on your meter and with the points open, you should have battery voltage at terminal. If it stays at zero, you probably have a failure of the insulator kit in the distributor if it stays battery voltage and the points are not making good contact with each other.
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I put a Petronius kit in because with a 1955 motor it was hard to get cranked. Changed coil. Runs great now.