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Ouch!
I did it.
The story goes like this: I'd ordered up a kit from Gearheads Cruiser Products to put a Saginaw 605 steering box in the car. This is very commonly done in '55-57 Chevys, for one, and seemed like a reasonable approach.
As noted last month, the kit arrived. Also as noted last month, it's not a 100% bolt-in. So, after much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, I finally got out the welder and the grinder and the hammers and put a 3/8in deep dimple in the top of the recently powder-coated frame rail.
Oh, the pain.
I've already doused the scar with POR-15, and I'll need to come up with some sort of 30% gloss black paint to topcoat it as a reasonable match for the powder-coating. At least most of the worked area will be under the steering box when everything's back together
The steering box seems reasonably well done, the welds connecting the output shaft housing to the mounting plate are consistent and appear to have good penetration. The bolts shipped with the package appear to be hardware-store ungraded stuff, not exactly confidence-inspiring; better stuff is already on order.
Meanwhile, the engine is getting closer. The heads are on. A junkyard '72 Lincoln yielded a front cover, a damper spacer that's better than the one I had, and a pile of accessory brackets. The front cover proved to have a fair bit of corrosion around the water pump outlets, so it went off to S&S Welding in San Jose for some repair work.