Exhaust options?

A small dimple with a ball peen hammer will do the trick.
It's a little more involved than that, not only the clearence, but also an airgap of 1/2" for safety. Picked up a set of mid-seventys Cordoba manifolds for $40. The passenger side is ok, and the driver side looks doable if I get rid of the column shift and take town the surface 1/4". I'll keep you posted.
There is a company that is making the BB stock driver manifold.Last I checked is was around $500 and 6 mos. wait.