I see the fuel tank is raised too. The trackrods must have been hitting it. Normally you'd fit anti-bumpsteer bushes to flip the trackrods to the underside of the steering arm on the knuckle.
I bought a GT gearbox a while back and fitted it to my bug. After about 300 miles it started to pop out of 4th gear. I'd pop it back in and drive on until it got worse and I had to hold the gearlever in 4th. Then when that became too difficult I fitted a EMPI/Hurst bus shifter to give me a bit more lever for holding it in gear. It felt like Kobat's pic above!! Eventually I ditched the shagged GT box and swapped in a free 1300 box.
oh, it's missing the rear tin from the engine too. Sure fire way to cook your engine...