Drivetrain TKO 600 What to do

I'm having the same problems with my 3550. It doesn't want to go into 1st and 2nd. There is nothing wrong with the gears themselves; the sliders and blocker rings are all worn out. I need to come up with $650 for parts. Unfortunately 3550 series transmission parts are really expensive. I have used Liberty before, but I actually prefer dealing with Hanlon. The lady who answers the phone has a brand of rude sarcasm I really like. Anyway, they actually talked me out of doing the really expensive faceplate setup that Liberty promotes. They are selling fiber hardened blocker rings for $65/each. She says if you do those on 2nd,3rd, and 4th the car will shift almost as fast as the face plate setup. She made it clear that the face plate setup does shift faster, but a 3550 series transmission isn't strong enough to handle full on power shifting anyway, and it's pointless. She had a lot of ways to save money, like matching up the slider hubs instead of replacing the whole slider.

Kurt