Ray,
I have seen other cars with the filler neck located like that. In mine I put it over on the side where your hose runs as it made it easier to stabilize it with a bracket. As for the gears, I ran 3:27s and in 5th gear with a .6 split in my transmission I was lugging the engine. However I had a 418 stroker that was built for racing and it didn't run well below 2500 RPM, so I did most of my driving in 4th gear. In my case a .8 split in the transmission would have been much better. So far your build looks as if it it is coming along nicely.
Ron
