Owen is correct, there is much more travel than necessary at the lever. Set it up so that when the knob is pulled all the way out, the lever is pulled fully forward. When the knob is pushed in, the lever should be back in its region of free play.

Yes, there is only one, on the driver's side to protect the filler neck.

A hearty "well done" on that one. Goes to show the benefits of being methodical, observant, and logical. Thanks for the good lesson.

The kits are complete with EVERYthing. To put it in a 400 you will need to have a driveshaft made as these came out of 55 Clippers. I have the 3.9 axles that were standard equipment with either stick or OD, but they are not suitable for mounting in a 400.

I believe the axle in a 56 400 is a Dana 60 so you should be able to just buy about any ratio you desire in the aftermarket. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Should be no problem to buy an aftermarket floor shifter.

55 and 6 hoods interchange for fit with each other, but not for appearance. All 51-4 hoods interchange.

A similar scoop would not be hard on a 55 hood because it has the sculptured cusps. Harder on a 56.

I am in Maryland. $1500 for the straight stick kit, $2100 for overdrive.

I don't recommend overdrive if your rear axle is numerically less than 3.54:1.

On the original style, the hood was cut along the crease lines and the center section raised. This required that side sections be fabricated. M-B used rather crudely formed pieces with a lot of overlap, spotwelded in, and then a ton of lead to smooth it all out. Check out the workmanship on the bottom of a Carib hood sometime. All those pieces made them prone to flexing in use and consequently cracks would appear in the lead over time.

I left the bottom layer closed, except for the two windows, for rigidity and to direct airflow where I wanted it.

I have two complete conversion setups available. One overdrive, one straight stick. Including bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, linkage, pedal mechanisms and steering columns. Please PM if interested.

Rather than drop a wad on having a bird replated, my customer and I hit on making a Caribbean hood for his 54 pickup (Packard Shipper). Really pleased how it turned out, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Used a center section from a damaged hood to make the scoop. This ends up being sturdier than popping the center up as Mitchel Bentley did. Even with the double skin the hood is much lighter than an original and does not need a hood prop. I also made it functional as I have cut two vents in the lower hood. One will blow cool air down by the carb to lessen percolation issues, and the other drops some cool air where the air filter can pick it up. May not really help but makes me feel better.

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I have noticed that the 41-50 vent window design has a tendency to be noisy if there is the slightest gap anywhere. Other years are not so fussy. Probably has something to so with the shape of the windshield posts and how the air rolls around that corner. Noise usually seems to come from the front corner of the window. You might be able to build up low areas of the seal by spreading on thin layers of black silicone gasket maker, or by shimming between the seal and body.