Bob, I did this once, way back, and hit the same problem as you. I simply put three large flat washers on each bolt between the bell housing and the engine thus moving the engine forwards by 3/16 inch so the cover plate missed the release shaft boss. Nowadays, especially if I had my own machining ca...

Bill, What you are describing is correct for a 1949 car. Your instant verification is that the firewall has flat bottomed stiffening flutes as opposed to round ones on earlier cars. I think the misleading information here is the chassis number. Are you sure it's 0617? That number is more likely to b...