Early A-Body four-speed tunnel hump revisited

Oops; I accidentally posted the new thread about the tunnel hump in the "Early A-Bodies Discussion' forum, titled "Success with early A-body Tunnel Hump."

I successfully splashed an orthopedic plaster mold from a stripped-inerior '65 four speed Barracuda and pulled a usable matt-and-cloth fiberglass hump from the mold. Not pretty, but fits great and really quiets things down, even just taped in place.

Here's the pics I included in the other forum, along with musings about whether to cut out the rest of the floor pan to gain access to the shift rods and bond the new 'glass tunnel permanently, or install it with sheet metal screws and plan to pull the carpet to remove it if/when I need to service the transmission....or some combination of the two.

As you can see, whoever swapped the transmission in didn't completely cut the floorpan as the factory did and it "captures" the shift rods as is. I'm worried that the fiberglass hump won't add enough strength to the structure (compared to the welded-in factory metal hump) if I complete the cutout and permanently bond it in place.

Thanks again for the suggestions and observations...great forum!