#47 is a wonderful storied car! It is a well modified track car which we modified back into a street car which has now taken up residence in New York City of all places. So here is the one year “life in the city” report… the car has done quite well, only suffering one dent on the rear parking light area. The car has been exclusively stored in city parking garages and one dent per year after life in NYC is actually pretty good.
The owner sent the car back to us for a new clutch and five speed conversion, which is a wonderful improvement over the former racing gearbox which was also jumping out of third gear. Now we have a superb former racer, ready to head back to the wilds of Manhattan!
We have done many five speed Bugeye conversions. When the cars are well sorted, the overdrive gearbox makes a Bugeye much more user friendly, and opens up a lot more high speed adventures. The five speed boxes are also fully synchronized, which makes shifting easier. We have the kits available for 948, 1098 and 1275 engines.
Installation is easy if you have a lift and intermediate mechanical skills. Some modification is required to the tunnel in order to fit the shift lever. Some modifications are required to the crossmember to accommodate the new five speed transmission and speedo cable. We can pick up your car and make this modification and install the transmission for you, and we can also provide templates and tech support to make the install easier if you choose to do this yourself. A complete new clutch and rebuilt gearbox is included with each kit.
We have installed many Datsun and Ford kits like this one and I prefer the Ford kit because it’s a bit easier to fit into the car, even though some modifications to the frame are required. We also find the Ford gearboxes to be more stout and Datsun gear box parts are getting harder to find. So we prefer the Ford set up to Datsun. We have the kits in stock at a lower price than what you will find elsewhere! Feel free to call if you want to talk about five speeds.