Well,
I have had the car running with a V8 for 5 years now. I hacked together a rear shift rod t clear the block huggers just to get the car going, thinking I would do a better job later.
Well, two motors, paint, frame kit,two radiators, three sets of wheels, new suspension and a tranny later I finally straightened it out.
See the before and after below. It shifted OK before, but now its great.
Maybe I will clean the windows one of these days.

Mark




And here is my helper...

Cute helper, ugly shift bar. Glad you got it fixed before you had to drive home 100 miles in 4th.

here are pics of mine - special thanks to root : )

Jim -
Where did you get your engine mount?
It looks like if the extensions on the end of the engine bar were about 3/4" longer, making the bar and the engine that much lower, you would not have needed to make the "U" in your shifter....?
If I recall you also had to cut out a little in the engine grill for the carb?
If the engine was lower, which would be done by adding the longer extension, it would have done away with that issue as well -

Thom