55 Chevy Progress

With the motor mounted (or re-mounted) it was time to install the steering. The parts supplied included an Ididit brand GM style steering column, it's like a van column from the 80's except made of spun stainless steel. The rest were standard stuff like steering universal joints, double D shaft and in our case a support bearing.

Before I could get to the steering, the body had to be re-mounted to get rid of the solid aluminum body mounts, These work great when you want the stiffest platform you can get for racing but on the street they are noisy as hell. Once the body was in position I could mount the front sheet metal, and then install the steering. I needed to make sure where everything was going to live before I built the steering.

Check it out!

I started by separating the body from the chassis

The solid body mounts are the blue ones on the right, the stock rubber mounts are the two piece black rubber deals on the left. The guy who built the car owned an anodizing business so all the aluminum parts on the car were anodized that color of blue/teal.

Here is the aftermarket GM style steering column all mounted up. Since the firewall was smoothed, the under dash pedal support was gone. This meant half of what holds the columm up under the dash was gone. So I had to make a bracket from scratch. Kind of looks like it all belongs there, no?

On the engine bay side I had to use two pieces of double D shaft to make the angle from the steering column to the rack & pinion. This meant using three steering joints total, which meant using a support bearing to hold it all up. This is the bracket I made out of 1/4" cold rolled plate. A little bury I know, but better safe than sorry when it comes to steering.

This is what it looks like with the bearing in it.

And here it is folks, all ready for rights and lefts!