Since most Hurst shifters have a bolt on stick, I'd ***emble the trans/shifter, get it lined up mountwise, and make an offset adapter to reposition the stick wherever it works best for you.
A lotta people heat & bend sticks to put the shifter wherever they want it. Download Hurst's catalog, and you'll see lotsa shifter sticks with their offsets and measurements.
On my saginaw in a 32 I just mounted the hurst shifter mech. and made an aluminum 3" spacer. I tapped the holes in the spacer and just bolted it to the shifter and then bolted the straight handle to the other side of the spacer. The only part to wath is that the spacer is a tight fit into the shifter housinf so it does not come loose and wiggle.
In a Model A it's not too hard to get the shifter to the center, use a spacer as above or an offset shifter arm but getting it out from under the seat into a usable position is another matter. If you're gonna use small buckets then it might not be too bad although pretty far rearward for comfortable shifting and the seat and/or your leg is going to be crowded pretty good. With a bench seat some heat bending may well be in order and maybe some clearancing on the bottom. Hurst offers some pretty long arms and one should work for you but obviously heat bending ruins the chrome. This is all ***uming you have a V8 up front and the typical 4" firewall recess which shoves the tailshaft shifter mount to the rear smartly. I've helped modify a 3 sp. shifter to get the mount bracket well ahead of the normal position but that won't work on 4 speeds with 3 trans levers. I think Deuces generally have a bit more room with which to work so the shifter would likely not be as far back as in the A. Aside from the gearing the shifter location is one of the reasons that S10 5-speed transmissions are so favored in early cars these days.
I'm running a 39 ford frame with the original "x" member. I got *** ****d by T&F shifters for their shifter. It mounts on top of the saginaw not beside it. IT is the best made shifter I have ever owned but it cost as much as the whole damn transmission. Its an arm and a leg but you definitly get what you pay for.
nice looking piece i wish it wasn't so pricy,of course a regular hurst is probably $250..00 or so these days............
I've seen, and have a couple, Hurst shifters with the top pice bent towards the centerline of the ******. These were made by Hurst for some application that needed the offset. I found these at swap meets over the years. I'm sure that someone has a number for them. One of them is slated for my A sedan build in the next couple of years. jerry
If you happened to run across a four speed from an '82-'84 Z28 or T/A, the shifter mount bolted to the p***enger side of the tailstock. Four speed 2WD Astro vans also had an unorthodox shifter mounting that may help you.
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