More rust on the passenger side makes perfect sense up in Babylon as you drive on the wrong side of the road. That is the side that gets all the gutter splash full of road salt. Otherwise they rust around the rear window first, which leads to the trunk, package tray, trunk hinge supports, deck filler panel, deck filler panel supports, quarter panels, trunk extensions rusting. Probably forgot something in there.

As stated, best fix for the shifter is adding the third pedal.

Not sure where you all are finding your wives, my wife daily drives a 67 Land Rover with manual everything and synchromesh on only 3rd and 4th.

Forgot to mention, our 70RR has solid mounts with a fairly stout 452. No problems on the street and better than the junky replacement rubber mounts that failed on the passenger side of all things. Even with solid mounts it is amazing how much the velocity stacks move under hard acceleration.