How NOT to build a car.

1. Violate your 2 rules (stay in budget & no feature creep) by drooling over the thought of a slick-shifting close-ratio 6-speed manual transmission
2. Pick up a half-price example of this "feature"
3. Throw away the CSB, driveshaft and flex disc from your old car because the 6-speed is just SO AWESOME that you won't need those old parts anymore
4. Don't do a thorough inspection of the transmission, so that you miss the soft/broken shifter centering springs AND the hairline fracture at the rear of the case that leaks badly
5. JB weld the crack without taking the transmission out of the car (not only did it not seal the leak, but now you've jeopardized the ability to repair the case with a proper weld)

At this point, your head hurts because if you put in the old transmission that you do have, you would have to replace the clutch, lightweight flywheel, short shifter kit, flex disc, starter, driveshaft, center support bearing, pilot bearing, master slave cylinder, throwout bearing, clutch fork AND fabricate a custom transmission mount.

You could also pull the transmission and find someone who's willing to pop open the rear case and fix it (or replace it with one from some old core)

But then you realize at this point that you've been waiting almost a year to drive this car, you've completely blown your budget, and you are SO CLOSE to getting on the road that you just give up, bite the bullet and get a replacement transmission, hoping that you could convince some other sucker to make the same mistakes as you and buy your mistake.

Argh.

Next time, I'm just getting a Honda.