[rgunlock]

With things more or less back together, the last pic shows that I have plenty of clearance between the shifters and the bench seat. Couple of random "done" pics as well.

So I still have to:
1) Figure out how to fix the AC drain without having to pull the unit preferrably.
2) Find the right connector for the reverse lamp and wire it in.
3) Figure out what to do about the front driveshaft.
4) Patch the gaping holes in the transmission hump.
5) Toss the carpet I spent so much effort in patching up after butchering it around the shifters the first go around. No way the boots are going to cover the original holes. I'm thinking I may go with rubber/vinyl flooring rather than carpet. Also get the shifter boots modified and mounted.
6) Redo the front mounts for my nerf-bar steps. The support bracing I originally made mounted to the transmission crossmember which is now more than an inch lower.

All in all, this turned out to be a pretty hefty project. I think from now on, if I can't do this on a bare frame I'll pay someone else. Just getting to the point where I don't want to deal with the up and down, crawl under crawl out stuff any more.

Test drives so far have been mixed. The transmission shifts nice although it has a pretty notable "clunk" from the topside while doing it. It sounds pretty good (reasonably quiet) from 2nd to 4th (haven't used 1st much). 5th gear is noisy as hell though. It has a fairly loud high pitched whine/drone but seems to quiet down a bit after being in 5th for a while. It also has a metallic rattling noise in 5th. That may be present in the lower gears as well but it isn't nearly as noticeable if it is present. A lot of that might not be too bad if I didn't still have the gaping holes in the hump right over the transmission and had padded carpet/mat and boots covering it up. Speaking of which, those holes make it damn unpleasant driving in Houston in August with what feels like 120 degree engine heat blowing up and into your face. Going to have to deal with that right away!

So, once I finish the list above, its just down to some tweaking and tuning. I don't have any plans for any other major changes. Just want to drive the heck out of it!