Pulled the driver seat, sill plate, and kick panel to be able to pull the carpet back and put a new shift boot in:



It was nice and tidy under the carpet, always nice to see, I wasn't sure what to expect...

 

Quite possibly one of the hardest things I've done on the car, installed the new shift boot onto the shift handle, used a heat gun and lubricant, still not sure how it didn't tear:

 

The rest of the day was spent scraping years of oil buildup off the bottom of the car, I got the majority of it off. Started with the wire wheel to get the rest off in preparation for painting it but still have a long ways to go. Will post some pics when it's clean.

 

The parts truck showed up today. It was too tempting so I went to work for a little bit. The '67 style trunnion showed up, turns out the threads on the '67 style are coarse and the '65 style clutch rod is fine. I ended up drilling out the threads and made it slip over. It sandwiched between the two nuts and doesn't budge. The barrel portion is the same diameter and the bushing fits great. Everything assembles nicely with a hitch pin and I actually like the hitch pin better than the '65 style c-clip. I think it will work nicely:

 

Picture of the old trunnion. You can see the bend in it and the lack of c-clip groove:

 

Also got the gaskets for the front parking lights in, so I was finally able to finish up that job (please ignore all of the rock chips):

 

Got around to replacing the transmission mount, I think it was about time:




When I parked the car, it still had a very slight vibration after replacing both u-joints. I never took the time to track it down since I decided to tear it apart. I had my hunch it was the output shaft bearing, but it could have been this.

Installed on the transmission:

 

A few more parts cleaned up:




Painted:



Installed:

 

I had a Ford mechanic rebuild the transmission on the side, he seemed to do a good job, but he flipped the reverse lever 180 degrees when he put the transmission back together. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the linkage wouldn't go back on. I had a slight interference between the reverse and 3-4 lever. Found some pictures online and figured out it was flipped. I also found some pictures of how he had the lever so apparently it can be both ways, must depend on which rods you have.

 

Small progress today. I stopped by the engine builder and picked up the valve covers. Gave them a shot of paint to match the air cleaner: