Someone asked about "your experiences with a 3 speed". In 1974 I bought a 62 Impala hardtop, not a real good looking car, it was oxidized gray,looked like primer but it wasn't. It had a 250 horse 348 in place of the original 283, and it was a factory 3 speed. It ws fun to drive, and I put a lot of miles on it. It got parted out after an accident the following summer. A local junkyard had a couple of '62's, so I bought one of them, and installed the 348 and the stick, although the old crash box non syncro 3 speed had been replaced by a Muncie before that.That was when a Muncie 4 speed with a Hurst Competition Plus shifter was available for $100.00 or so. It was a lot easier to swap all this stuff when you have all the stuff you need off of a parts car. The second '62 got one of several 409's, and it became my bracket car. Meanwhile, while dating the young lady that became my wife, we were out one night and noticed a red/white top '65 Impala convertible sitting in a driveway with a 4 Sale sign on it. We went back the next day, and talked to the seller, test drove it, and bought it for $650. It had a beige bench seat interior and had a 250 horse 327 with a 3 speed non synchro stick on the column. I drove it for about 6 months while Janet was going to school at UC Davis, and in the mean time, the 3 speed took on a noticeable bad growl. One parts source I had asked me if I wanted to buy a trans out of a '66 Chevy. I went back and looked at it, it was a full synchro saginaw unit,so I grabbed it for $35 and installed it during my lunch at the dealer I worked at. The linkage off the column even came with it. Took about 15 minutes or so. The crash box was last used in '65, and the Saginaw full synchro unit came out in '66. Easiest bolt in upgrade I ever saw. Later, I found a wrecked '65 Impala SS hardtop, black interior, 396/325 horse, front end sheet metal had been removed, and the 396 was full of rain water. I put a 4 speed in my ragtop, got a 4 speed SS Impala console, and switched out the entire interior,dash, wiring harnesses and all, and also had put a 340 horse 409 in the convertible by then. With a 12 bolt with 3.31 gears and the 2 1/2 " exhaust on it, it was a real road monster. It would tow about anything, as well. It had a frame hitch so it got lots of trailer duty. Well, later I decided to sell the '65, but nobody wanted to pay much for it because it wasn't the original 409, even though it was a '65 409 JB block. I built my first Chevelle stocker by then, so I put together a 327 250 horse engine but with regular gas heads, and put the Powerglide from one of the Chevelles in it, switched the brake and clutch pedal assembly over to a PG wide brake pedal, and did it all stock. It turned out well and I not only got my price for the convertible, but sold the 409 engine and got about $8000 for all this stuff. I had the red convertible for 19 years,put 3 motors, 4 transes, 2 convertible tops on it, painted it once, and did a nice conversion from a plain Impala to an SS.I actually got 10 times for the car in 1995 than what I gave for it in 1976. I think the only part I still have from that '65 convertible is the original and correct Carter WCFB carburetor that still worked when I pulled the original 327 and swapped in the 409. If a 3 speed stick is your thing, use the all synchro Saginaw unit. They work very well and will stand up to a 409 a lot longer than the little crash box would.