Hi INRI.
The 80s was a time when a lot of experimentation was going on with gear all the time. With that said, many guitar players used the clean tones from their amplifiers, and enhanced that with distortion and other effects. There is no setup that's carved in stone.
It sounds like you don't have an amplifier for your guitar to start with, so based on that premise, I'll try to give you a starting point or two to jump off with.
If you have a rack preamp, I'm sure there will be some kind of clean tones in it that you can experiment with until you get the sound you are looking for. IF not, then you need a guitar that has a good tone going direct into your interface. Starting with a good sound is always the key. You'll need to experiment with the EQ, to help shape the clean tone. Think of it just like you would do it if you were playing through your amplifier. Once you have EQ'd your clean tone and are happy with it, then you can start experimenting with enhancement. I find most pedals add their own character to your sound, so choose wisely. Compression will go in the front of your amp just like a wah. As for the preamp, well effects like Tube Screamers, Overdrives, Distortions, and Fuzz, these are all preamps by themselves but what separates them is the amount of gain and how fast they begin clipping. To get a "clean" sounding tone from the 80s, you have to realize they were not completely clean. Most of the clean sounds you heard back then were actually very low gain overdrive tones that used EQ to shape the overall sound, and the gain was set very low. This was done to boost the clean guitar signal and give it more strength because straight clean guitar didn't have enough power to sit in the mix usually and stand out.
On the ADA preamps, you could turn up the gain on your clean tone to do this, but that could also push the amp into more saturated gain which becomes overdrive if you go too much.
If you are trying to do this with only pedals, then I have found one that I like very much that gives me a very good Fender clean tone, but can also push into mild overdrive, and that is the Crazy Tube Circuits Crossroads pedal. I bought it just for situations where I can't take any kind of amplifier to a gig. It gives me a very pleasant clean tone with an added TS circuit if I want it. If you have a pedal like this one, and it gives you the tone you want, then you can use your compressor before this along with your wah. If you are going to use an additional EQ, you could try it in front of this pedal, or after it. (Pre-EQ vs. Post-EQ) The same goes for any OD or Dist pedals. Basically, the clean pedal, EQ, and Distortion pedals are everything you have in every basic preamp section of an amplifier, so you can experiment with the EQ in any placement on the signal chain.
After you have shaped your guitar tone the way you like it, then you can start adding your effects pedals to it. I personally prefer my Modulation effects after the preamp ( Phaser, Flange, Chorus, etc.) I also like to split my signal into stereo at this point. I use a TC Electronic Stereo Chorus Flanger for this. From there, I like to use delays on each channel set to different time intervals to get a very full and rich guitar tone. Programmable delays are best for this so you don't have to fiddle with twisting knobs when changing settings. If I am going to use Reverb, I always put it last in the effects chain. That's my own personal preference, some folks like to put it earlier in the effect chain, but I don't know why.
One thing I would recommend before the modulation, delay, and reverb effects, is to add a pedal that simulates the power amp and speakers of your amplifier. Many people rave about the Strymon Iridium, but I've found the NUX Solid Studio does a bit more for half the price. If you go this route, get the full size pedal, not the mini one. And again, with a pedal like this one, you can experiment with where you like it in the signal chain. I have used it in the location I mentioned above with interesting results. It sounds like I've I mixed in my effects after the amp tones have been recorded. But then again at the very end of the signal path after all the effects and going into the DAW from there, it still sounds good.
You'll have to play around with the connections until you find something that makes you happy. Your ears will let you know.
As for line level vs. instrument level, pro studio gear is usually set to line level to reduce noise. It's a much lower level and it may be barely audible when monitoring at times, but that's the reason for it. One thing to keep in mind when building a pedal board, is that the more stuff you add to it, the more opportunity there is to introduce noise into your signal path, and with cheap pedals, the more you add, the noisier it gets.
Regarding the compressors, a lot of them claim to be quiet, but the more you add the gain to it, the noisier they get. I'm not sure about this, but I think the more high-end compressor pedals are quieter, but I never tried any of them. I'm not a huge compressor user. I only use it on clean guitar tones, but I don't really turn up the gain too much or it gets noisy. I just use it to put back the natural sustain of the guitar notes that get too weak to be picked up when recording direct. You could also try a noise gate to cut the hiss out when your sound threshold falls below a certain level.
I hope that's helpful