I had the tunnel cut open on my car. The fabricator just used a piece of flat stock over the trans to replace what he cut out, but he triangulated what was left of the oem torsion bar mount/crossmember into the subframe connectors.
cool. i may have to pick your brain on this a little more. i am looking for a 4 spd. duster to build for track use,so i might put the 5 spd in my 71. i hate to cut the floor too much,but oh well!