I had a similar problem and I'm finally doing something about it. I'm relocating my master high on the firewall so that the rod can be near the top of the clutch pedal arm. I'm running a power brake booster though. to deal with the interference problem I created a clutch "box" to bring the master "into" the car a couple of inches. you can see the picks of my butchery on my blog
http://asifnyc.com. look for the two recent posts titled "clutch box" and "adventures of clutch box". probably won't pass your "looks" test but just thought I'd mention it since I know this is going to solve my heavy pedal problems...
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-asifnyc- penngrove, ca (SF bay area)
asifnyc.com - Javelin Blog
1974 AMC Javelin NASA American Iron road race car
1974 AMC Matador road race project
1975 AMC Gremlin shell
1973 AMC Javelin/AMX - street
1975 AMC Gremlin - street
1970 AMC Javelin shell
1962 Rambler American vert