HEHEHE
I second What Devilrod says! always budget for three time smore than you budget for, and five times as long as you first thought it would take, along the way you will find a treasure trove of little (and not so little) unexpected suprises!
As far as putting a Trimatic behind the grey! DO IT! You will be pleasantly suprised (as I was) at the difference it makeswhen you are getting closer let me know and I can help you out (having done it before) and put you in touch with the right people to get the gear off.
Matt
P.S. an invaluable piece of advice given (on another forum) was that you need to make a list of all of the tasks to be done, and even when you are at your most disheartened, spend 20 mins a day out in the shed working on the project, pick a little job and do it or work a little on bigger job on the list, either way, in no time you will have a major chunk of the car done, and not really missed out on having your life outside of the shed!
Hoping everyone is finding my new Avatar less "Distracting" and of course it is not directed at anyone or anything either currently living or deceased, hopefully it may just be allowed to remain!