I would recommend changing the waterpump and timing belt as a bare minimum before putting the motor in the car, you dont want to have to do it later on so it's cheap insurance... Also pull the box from the motor and check the clutch aswell because a lot of gze cuts have dead clutches...
My little sedan is a bit of a sleeper, and it goes very well, I transplanted in all the levin dash and climate control aswell...
...and yes, if you can get a frontcut cheap enough, the conversion can easily be done for less than $3K, but in Bris the GZE cut prices have gone up a lot recently, the average price for a MAP GZE cut is now $2300-2400, and $2200 at mates rates...