TH350 Swap In, 2 weeks? Crossmember?

[fortytwoandrising]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to the forum, and so far I have to say that I love this place. Anyway...I've got a '72 3/4 ton 4x2 (C20? is that right) Long bed/Fleetside. It's been sitting for a while with clutch problems and I recently took it into a shop here in the bay are to have my TH350 put in it.

So far it has been 2 weeks! A couple things they were waiting for:

1) Flexplate (okay, it may have taken a bit to get it...)
2) They told me yesterday that they have to cut the H-pipe in my exaust (no problem, I'm going to replace the exaust)
3) They said there is a cross member near the engine they have to remove...
4) They have to fabricate a crossmember for the TH350 (Shouldn't they just order one, or have seen this two weeks ago?)

I guess my question is, what crossmember do you need to remove to replace the stock granny 1st tranny with a TH350? I don't remember having to remove any crossmembers when I did the same thing on my '67.

I don't think I would really mind things cropping up, but couldn't they have looked at this crap while my truck was sitting there for 2 weeks? Does it normally take a shop 2+ weeks to do something like this?

Sheesh...