oneball, I did say it was just my three penny worth having not got a welded gearbox cross member, I don't know how fiddly it is to get a gearbox out with the cross member still in place, others have said it's easy anyway.
Perhaps in the early days of Corvette production it was cheaper to weld a cross member in, than to bolt one in ?
I think I'm correct in saying that from 1980 on they were bolted in anyway,
so why would a bolted in one (correctly) not be as strong as a welded in one? There are lots of companies in the States that sell bolt in conversations, you just have to make sure you get the right conversion kit for the type of of gearbox you have or are using.
Just saying.