In March 1999 I bought a 1950 3600 pickup. About 20? years earlier the tired 216 was replaced by a 307 V8. The rest of the truck was kept stock. This motor had rear dump exhaust manifolds, I'm not sure from what, maybe original 307. The steering box still had to be moved out 1.5-2". The hole in fire wall for steering column was enlarged. A little distributor clearance was beat into the firewall with the correct size hammer. The PO got a 55-57 car bellhousing with the mounting ears and it mounted in the exact place the 6-cyl bellhousing mounts on the crossmember. They fabricated side motor mounts welded to the frame. Behind all this was the original SM420, driveshafts, etc. Neat homemade conversion. Your automatic will be different and I agree that the bellhousing crossmember will have to go, but it adds a lot of strength and rigidity to the frame. Something needs to bridge across the frame rails close to that location. I also would be concerned about front motor mounts and tailshaft mounted auto....
