[Cautrell05]

I made a little more progress on it this weekend. The upper steering column mounts were just kind of rougged in and held in with c clamps. Got it lined up where I wanted so it was centered between the gauges and up as tight as possible but still have decent clearance for the shifter. Drilled a hole and mounted the left side. The right side bracket wasn't quite as easy. The dash slopes down right there so the bracket wouldn't quite line up. I ended up cutting the ear off and welding it on the inside. May not be quite as easy to get to as the other one, it's still better than 90% of the new cars I work on at my day job. Once I get the bottom of the column mounted where it needs to be, I'm going to go back and extend the upper brackets so they tie into both holes on the side of the steering column. It's probably Overkill but they look out of place being empty and it'd be a little more solid that way.

The other thing I did was throw together some adjustable bump stops out of some leftover pieces I had laying around. I took the springs out way back at the beginning of the project with the intention of everything being built at right height so that I knew it was going to be exactly where I wanted. I had a couple wood blocks that fit in between the lower arm and the frame when I was sitting on the ground they got really annoying every time I jack it up and set it down then fall out and I'd have to reposition them. That and they weren't the exact height I wanted. Out of my pile of saved hardware because I can't throw anything away, I had two 5/8 carriage bolts that I knew I would never use on anything, 2 5/8 flange nuts and a couple flat plates with the square punched in them if you're running a 5/8 carriage bolt. I stacked them up and tack welded them together and then I also welded a 3/8 bolt sticking out the bottom as a peg and slipped it in the arm in place of the bump stop. It won't fall out when I jack it up, and they're also adjustable. There's about a half inch of adjustment at the bolts which is about between 3/4 and an inch of adjustment out at the wheel. for mockup purposes it'll just be more consistent and a little more convenient than the blocks falling out all the time. One of the things i have been meaning to do for about 2 years now.