Evening brethren.

I can hear the groans of the masses from even here in my teensy offshot village, and doubt the title will attract let alone enthrall most who spot it. Probably best if i state what (1) i would like to do, then what i (2) would like to know, followed by what i foresee (3) as hurdles that i'm hoping someone that's tried rather than guessed can quash the idea with. I'll be honest, search function hasn't thrown much encouragement nor been all that fun to navigate.

If you've read this far, ta muchly, and better still if you've solid input that isn't read but known i'll see what i can do in respect of organising you a beer at some point (Not bribery, simply a hope that half truths and bandwagoning is set aside).

1: I hope to take the car i already have, being an 04 auto coupe, and with a near complete donor car, manual cabrio that was a driver, add any and all items of hardware/software/harnesses/switchgear/sensors/mounts/driveline items/other standard bits and bobs that would have to go across, to wind up with a manual box in my car that functions as it would were it built with one.

2: if one views a bodyshell as a not so much, living breathing individual entity, but a shell that simply rolled down a production line, a-la an pizza and i wanted through my own efforts to pull all the anchovies off and replace them with olives from another pizza from the same shop, not caring what happens to the donor pizza, then what dramas am i facing besides pulling off fishes and scrubbing away their residue before adding the pilfered olives and forcing it through an oven? Does the hard casing of the car vary wildly from auto to manual in respects of non boltable pickup points/an hole in a tunnel from whence ones shifter doth springeth/and the fun one, hard to soft top as far as the mechanicals are concerned? Re-shelling to a large degree whatever needs to get out of one into the other.

Can one view a body shell and most of its attendant baubles of commonality such as panels, lights, interior, suspension, and other accoutrements as just that, a shell. If not, what and why please?

3: Aside from not having a retractable roof which i presume is going to throw some sort of code if there's no feedback from position sensors and limit switches that hopefully i can bypass/provide a feed to to let the car and its attendant (if need be) replacement computer modules, the delight that is growing the necessary extra wrists and elbows required to pluck and refit all the required components on something designed by and for doublejointed midgets, and the wherewithal to commit to this knowing full well it could all go up the spout and require reverting to the way things were, what can the esteemed members offer me to genuinely, dissuade from tackling a trans and electrics swap?

If it was supercharged, i get that there's no computer to account for a shaltgetriebe. If it was merely the illusion of popping the slushbox off the block and bunging a clutch and a 6 cogger up its coit and all being roses, i can handle that being dispelled too as what the searches so far have spat up hints that it best be to view the driveline and its controlling brains with that of the keys, ECM-BCM-sensors, etc as a unit. And more to the point the searches i have found show people wanting to swap out components only, rather than a full system. My main basic premise for a hope that this mightn't all go toes up is that i'll be starting with two running cars, the belief that a bodyshell is just that (not accounting for the cabrio vs hardtop variations) and whilst it has stamped numbers to let it differentiate one car from another that aside from trim and luxury options that the computers won't give a rats providing that any and all olives to go across all came from just one pizza. I get full well i'm not dabbling with a Chrysler of old here (or for that matter even a Merc) where one can pop a 904 out and just click my heels together three times saying "there's no place like A833" and all is solved. But i'd love some well stated reasons as to why i can't take the collar off a doberman and adjust it onto a bassett hound.

Thanks for your time, glen of the mid-lower of FNQ, in the other south.

 

They are your cars, do what you'd like.
I don't know how hard or easy it would be, but the electronics will be the parts that give you the most trouble I would think.
I would ask one thing. When you are done, don't just junk the other car, but sell or donate as much of it as you can. There are many owners looking for parts out there.
Good luck, what ever you decide.