Ah Loz, you are making my memories flood back, I've done a few projects myself in the past, and its funny how jobs that were a right pain at the time and took hours to figure out how to make different parts fit together and work, after its done and running they become almost fond memories, and sometimes if the solution is simple and ingenious become righteous moments, especially 25 -30 years on! if you were nearer to me I would be there helping you.
V8 rover into bedford CF van, same into a transit van, V8 small block ford 289 into v6 mKII (girly) mustang, turned a MKII cortina estate into a pick up, various ford engine upgrades using bigger ford engines, Dolomite sprint engine into a ford Anglia, the anglia had a straight 6 2.4 jag engine and box in when I got it! Used to be a gang of us hung around this mad lockup garages area, always someone doing something mad with a motor and plenty of knowledge/tools/equipment/ideas when you were stuck.
Mind you the stuff we did back then on the road testing half built cars, bikes vans, towing, wheelspins, burnouts, showing off etc we would all loose our licences in one afternoon if we did the same these days