"El Mongrel" '65 Formula S Restomod

I'm BAAACCKKK!!!! (Jack poking head through bathroom door in the "Shinning"). Sorry for the delay in the updates, was only gone to MATS for 5 days but had three weeks worth of crap to catch up on when I got home! So here is the next installment in the saga of the "Mongrel".

Part 10
Related to the drive train and needing to include it before I forget is the shifter mod I came up with. I have seen reference to this by others since then but it was totally unknown to me at the time I did this mod. The ‘65 Cuda used a small floor mounted shifter and console which actuated a twin cable shifting mechanism. This was a mix of a new shifter and the old cable system from the ‘64 dash mounted push button system. I believe this was a one year only setup as in ‘66 they went with the rod and lever system found in later model Auto floor mount shifters, or maybe it was ’67 and later? Anyway the stock tranny and cable mechanism went the way of cheap gas and were replaced with the A999. That left the problem of a replacement shifter set up for a reverse manual valve body. I wanted to keep the stock console as it is one of the signature pieces of the interior on these cars. I dug through my parts bin and pulled out an old Hurst Pro-matic 2 shifter I had squirreled away years ago. This had promise as it is a ratchet type shifter and would work with stock or reverse pattern valve bodies. I removed the console off the stock shifter and set the Pro-matic on the floor next to it for comparison. They were surprisingly similar in size and construction and looked like it would almost bolt right into the stock brackets. That wasn’t quite the case but a little grinding for clearance and a couple of tack welds had it sitting securely in place (red circles on pics). The real question was if the console top plate would work with the throw of the Hurst shifter. I removed the ball off the shifter, gutted a beat up spare console top plate of the shift indicator and sliding plastic plate and slipped it over the lever. YESSSSS…. It lined up! Now will it clear the throw of the lever? I gingerly ran the shifter through it’s gates a few times. HOT DAMN it clears! Other than a couple of strokes with a file to ease the edge under the front of the console’s top plate, so it wouldn’t rattle against the lever in PARK, it was like they were made for each other. Sadly my shifter is pretty sloppy from use but it looks nearly stock, except for the Hurst logo engraved down the lever which I really like. It’s the “Auto” version of the Hurst 4 speed shifter that came on the ‘65s. Definitely not a factory option! The red circles show the small notch I ground into the rear bracket for clearance and 3 heavy spot welds that mount the shifter to the floor brackets. I could have bolted it to the top of the tunnel, through the provided tabs, but that would be more holes in an otherwise pristine floor. The spot welds are more than enough to hold it in place, believe me I tested it. I did have to put a hole in the tunnel for the new shifter cable as there was no way to make it bend to go through the factory hole which is way up by the gas pedal. A reverse pattern decal left over from a B&M Pro Stick fit over the stock indicator window with a little trimming and we can mark this project "DONE".