'67 200ci T4 auto trans flywheel

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this and let me know if this
is factory or if someone in the past has done some modifications to the
flywheel and torque converter on my 1967 Mustang 200ci t4.

I took notice that the ring gear has been spot welded to the torque
converter instead of being attached to the flywheel.

The shop manual shows the ring gear being attached to the flywheel. My
local mustang parts store catalog shows the flywheel ring gear assembly
as one and the torque converter by itself.

So, it has me scratching my head wondering if someone has modified mine
in the past or whether this could have been original.

Some of the teeth are damaged so I want to replace the ring gear and
the starter while I'm at it, but... I'm wondering what is normal. I'm
leaning toward just replacing the entire torque converter and buying
the flywheel with ring gear attached and being done with this whole
mess if it has been hacked in the past.

Thanks for any insight you can offer.