Sounds like we have a bit in common. I retired from the Army after 20 years. The initial VA evaluation after I retired was 20% disabled. Over the years as the degenerative arthritis got worse I’ve been reevaluated a couple of times. The last evaluation was in Oct and the rating went to 50% …….of course their holding the payments and back pay till they do an audit.

My 2 favorite cars are my 57 Plymouth with a 4 speed and a little Dodge Ram 50 I put a Small Block Chevy and 5 speed in a few years ago. Love driving both of them……unfortunately I can’t drive either, especially in town.

As far as automatics go I ended up really liking Mopar’s 46 RH/RE. The OD lets you get way with a lot deeper gear than you can with a non-overdrive unit. I was running one in my 37 Dodge truck with 4.6 gears and it would comfortably cruise at 75 MPH. Unfortunately they are a SB bolt pattern so you would need something like an ultra bell to mate it to a BB. There are also trans tunnel mods required to fit it in an A body (that I’m planning covering in this thread).