Next, you’ll need to cut out a hole for the shifter to come through the floor board. Measure twice, cut once. (A long story short- my low hump was butchered from a 3 speed floor shifter and knowing I was going to put in a high-hump, I went ahead and cut everything out in the middle.) A neat trick if you’re unsure of exactly where to cut even after measuring is to drill a small hole or two to make sure you’re in the right location, then cut a hole or use a hole saw about 4” in diameter. From the photo below you should have a good idea of where you'll need to start cutting.
Now, go get your shifter that you set aside earlier. Chances are, you'll get the stock shifter which is shown on the left. I got lucky with my transmission as it had an aftermarket short-throw shifter attached which is the one shown on the right. If you’ve got the Camaro transmission and you attach the shifter back on the transmission just as it came, then 1st gear will be straight up and the shift over to 5th gear will be quite a reach due to how it compensates for the 18* angle that the transmission was at previously on the car. You can change that so that the shifter lever sits closer to you and is more comfortable to drive with, just by turning it on it’s base 180*. Simply take the spring clip off the rubber boot and you’ll see that you can swap the handle 180* and slip it back in, reattaching the clip and you’re done. Now bolt the shifter onto the transmission.
Here's how it should look thus far- you're on the homeward stretch!!
Adjust your clutch linkage properly.
Hook up your speedo cable- you'll now need a longer speedo cable since the output is farther back. An 80" GM cable is perfect and should be available from your LAPS.
Hook up the reverse lights- there are 2 wires coming from the column and they just connect to the connector on the transmission. Hopefully you saved the weatherpack connector!
Now drive like you stole it!
Now, regarding a crossmember. Initially I just wanted to get this back on the road and drove around without one. But I knew that I needed something to support the rear end of this since it's such a long transmission. I was originally going to fab up something using an auto crossmember, but after taking it to my exhaust guy, he recommended just fabbing one up out of a lower grade of roll bar tubing. He did it in about an hour using the stock mount and it came out fantastic. (Notice how it's fit to the original 18* angle that's no longer needed?) He even created it so that it's removable when I need to take out the transmission.
