Welcome to
, I can assume you did not do the tranny swap and therefore you may not know what clutch was used, did they replace the throw out bearing or the pilot bearing? is the pressure plate in backwards?
Note : First and second gear are the hardest on a tranny, as the RPM and momentum increases it gets easier to shift the higher gears however, a properly set up clutch should not engage as hard as you indicate.
Give it some time for many of the knowledgeable members of this site too make further suggestions to your problem, good luck
DanS
