The stock look goes away when the OEM floor hump with the side mounted shifter is not present. Not so much mechanical linkage.
I believe the convenience, clearances and modernized clutch linkage are the benefits of hydraulic. Hard to beat the dependability of mechanical linkage when set up right.
Surprised it's cheaper to go hydraulic versus making the mechanical work. Did you weld in the outer ball stud gusset? Curious of the issue? The tail shaft looks to be pretty close to the stock tail shaft location.
With that said. I also decided to go the hydraulic clutch. I went with SST. Running the big block with TTI headers I thought the extra room would be nice. I am also working on a garage floor with Jack stands. A lift would be nice. Cool car and nice progress.
