Next up: mount the steering column in the chassis. Nothing magical here, just lots of little steps. The steel bearing cup insert did work well at preventing distortion during welding. To get a proper press fit for the rear support bearing I decided to use my new internal bore gauge. At first it didn’t work at all (made in China, of course), so I had to disassemble it completely, figure out how it was supposed to work, unstick the rusted shaft, replace the dead battery, and reassemble it. All in a day’s work out here on the frontier. So now I can measure both holes and shafts to a few microns and press fits are much easier to make.
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- Front bushing; sheet metal cut on bandsaw and with die grinder
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- Front bushing support bent to shape
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- Front bushing support cap, ready to weld
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- Finished front bushing support
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- Turning steering column rear bearing cup
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- Finished rear bearing cup
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- Finished rear column support parts
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- Steel insert bushing to prevent distortion of the bearing cup during welding
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- Rear support, ready for welding. Note steel insert to prevent distortion.
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- Test fit; fit was perfect first try.
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- Rear support welded
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- Ready to tack weld in place
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- Tack welded
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- Quality Control Inspector gives her approval.
LudemannEngineering 
absolutely wonderful masterpiece, hi my name is luis nino de rivera, im a freshmen mechatronics student and currently hold place as pit crew chief for anahuac racing (my university nascar v6 team), i wish to know if I could get hold of you and discuss the possiblities I have of replicating your work here in mexico as well as of having you give a speech to the team.
Email sent… Thanks for the encouragement.
This is an amazing project! I am completely floored by what has been achieved. Are there any more updates?