Converting an automatic 74 Swinger to a 4 speed

I did it to my 69 Barracuda Fastback. It was a lot of work, but it was quite satisfying. Don't try it unless you are a pretty good wrench turner. With the exception of welding in a 4 speed hump, it is pretty straight forward. @AJ/FormS makes a good point. You can get exceptional performance with an automatic. But I did mine for the same reason you mentioned, to bang through the gears like I did 50 years ago. I was very lucky when I converted mine about 15 years ago. I found a 69 Barracuda Fastback 340 4 speed car with console advertised on Ebay as in fairly good shape but needing a complete restoration. I bought it sight unseen for $2700. I figure I had another $500 wrapped up in driving up to the Chicago are, renting a trailer and towing it back to Kansas. What I wound up with was a car that had quite a bit of rust, but it had a running 340 with cast iron manifolds, ALL the 4 speed stuff I would need, 8.75 Sure grip with 3.55 gears, decent interior, Decent sbp ralleye wheels, and a lot of other good pieces. I pulled all the four speed stuff, sent the shifter and pedal assembly to Brewers (what a great bunch of people) to be restored, had the top of the console re-chromed and bought a new flywheel. Then I sold the running 340, the automatic from my car and the 8.75 rear end out of the parts car $2400, and then parted the rest of the car out on Ebay. I did it all with regular 10 day auctions, no buy it now. I was amazed at what some of the stuff sold for. I wound up with a 4 speed conversion that was better than free; I actually put money in my pocket.