3-on-the-tree?

I'm gonna go against the grain here and tell you that the 3 on the tree might get very old for you. I've had two cars with 3 on the tree's. The 68 Barracuda had a non synchro'd first gear and a really sloppy shifter. It was a pain to drive and I ended up getting rid of it after a year or so (for other reason).

I just recently bought a 78 D100 with a slant and a 3 on the tree. Shifter is real tight but they just naturally feel flimsy, like they're about to break. It feels like you have to treat it as if you're holding a baby. This one is synchornized though. The 1st to 2nd shift is pretty slow and you'll wear out the bushings in the column if you try and rush it and slam it into 2nd. You most likely wont get any better MPG with it. If it was a 4 on the tree that might make some difference. The only positive I can think of is that with the slant 6, it'll feel a bit peppier than a stock auto slant 6. Even though the shift from 1st to 2nd is slow, the acceleration in 1st is much faster than an auto would normally be.