Nice job with the aluminum fab! I think about the joys that would come with a box brake every time I have those two bends in a corner. Took an approach similar to yours and in the end works out fine. Todd's right about the additional time / pain associated with any wanders away from the standard build components. But, seems worth it in terms of getting a truly custom car.

Hadn't thought about making the console box a floating box - that's cool. I'm still puzzling through exactly how I'm gonna fasten mine to the 'A frame' and tranny top. Thanks for sharing your approach.