Drilling the plates could bend the throttle shaft if not careful. All the quadrajets I have seen, maybe 10, have had the body and top cover already set up with the bypass air channels cast in and open. The only thing you really need to do is pull the baseplate and drill the 2 holes out in the proper spot. I would refer to which recipe you are using, and start out on the smaller side of the hole. Once you do this, you could go larger if needed without pulling the base plate.