MoparPowa's money hole (66 Dart 5.7 hemi build)

Long story short...

1. I got married last year
2. I deployed overseas earlier this year
3. I "lost" some money (inherited debt)
4. I lost motivation (hard to feel good spending money)

All that said, it's time to get back to business.

I spent yesterday cutting out the torsion bar x-member to try and see if I could make the 200-4R auto trans fit better in the tunnel. Some of you will remember that I intended to run this trans before I started talking about the MA5 manual. Just a few posts up (albeit years in time) I mention that the adapter plate and transmission his the firewall. However, I'm thinking that it wouldn't clear the firewall is because it was angled too far downwards. I hadn't cut out any of the torsion bar x-member at the point, meaning the transmission would fit up in the tunnel correctly, forcing the engine angle downward and the top of the plate into the firewall. That's the hypothesis at least, currently. In a few more days, I will make it back out to the shop and see if I can get it to fit in the bay now without hitting the firewall. If it does fit, I'll be running an auto. If not, back to figuring out the MA5. I'll confirm next week, for any of you early a body 3rd gen hemi Alterktion equipped folks out there (surely there's at least 5?) interested in running this transmission, that it does indeed fit with no tunnel modifications required to the floor sheet metal. It looks that way to me right now, but we shall see. If it fits, next step will be designing the new trans x-member. My goal is to have everything in and tacked by Friday when my welding guy (and brother) comes in. Secondary goal is to completely finish my frame connector mods and possibly tack them in as well. More to come... Action shot for proof ;)