I got the car home in the spring and began to pour over it.  It was at this point I found out the car was a 4 speed.  When I first bought it I  knew it had an automatic brake pedal in it.  I just assumed it was an automatic car.  I found that  the frame had the Z bar bracket welded on and the column seal had a rubber boot for the clutch rod to pass thru the firewall to the Z bar.  After consulting some 65 442 experts, I found out that only manual transmission cars got the frame bracket and the hole in the floor for a manual shifter.  My car had that hole, but it was covered up by a plate someone had used to mount an automatic shifter to.

Trunk seal leak caused surface rust on trunk pan.  Found one pin hole in entire floor.

Underside with 442 specific sway bar and boxed control arms

These three things hinted towards the car being a stick shift originally

I consulted Roger Green, 65 Cutlass guru for the OCA, and he told me that I had a manual trans 442. I still dont know if it was a 3 or 4 speed car.  The Heavy Duty 3 speed was made available March 1, 1965.  My car was built the second week of March, so it could have had a 3 speed Ford Top-Loader transmission.  You can tell on a Lansing car by a code on the data plate but not a Fremont car.