shifter location?

It could be a bunch of things, but basically it means that the trans it not lining up with the tunnel/shifter opening, as I'm sure you realize. It could be a tweaked cross member, bent frame, bad engine mounts, bad trans mounts, etc. Who knows? Maybe the the ford factory used a hammer to make the trans fit (good scenario), or maybe the car was crashed in its former life, and the repair guy had to resort to the BFG to get it to fit (worse scenario). I would look around under the car to see if you can't figure out were the misalignment is occurring, and see if you can fix it. Good luck, and I hope I am totally wrong about the above.

Whew, I kinda didn't want to bring up the wrecked thing, glad its out of the question (unlike mine lol).

whats wrong with it being stamped with Borg/Warner? They made T5's for all the stangs...

no ones tranny shifter hole is perfect... ford decided that since the auto trannies and manual trannies shifters were in 2 diff locations that it would be better to cut them out with a sawzall... mine is cut kinda funky. as long as your tranny is sitting on the crossmember properly I wouldnt think much of the shifter hole as a guideline.