Welcome Aboard, If your '65 pan is in good shape I would use it as you would have to go through the deal of shorting the IRS pan( if it isn't a full lenght buggy). I just went through this ordeal with my Allison Buggy and it wasn't a whole lot of fun.
The other problem is the '74 1600 has a larger Dia. flywheel and will not just bolt up to some earlier trannys without doing a little grinding on the tranny case. This operation is not really a big deal. Somewhere along the line some of the tranny cases were already modified ,I think late 64 up.( I said just some). If you know for sure your 1500 engine is all original,( your engine # should start with the letter H ) you may have a tranny already set up for the larger flywheel.
Is your starter a 6 volt or 12 volt ? The smaller 6 Volt flywheel has 109 teeth, The larger 12 Volt flywheel has 120 something teeth(I forget).
If you go from 6 V to 12 V you would have to change starter motors and use a transition bushing (easy to get).
Im basing a lot of this info on what you are telling me because Im not sure what you are dealing with and I sure don't want to get you confuse this early on. But this all can be delt with without a whole lot of pain. There is a lot of help standing by with this bunch :lol: :lol:
We can talk some more at the meeting.
