If you’ve read the last two issues (and if not, why not?), you’ll know we’ve been upgrading Paul Gauvry’s ’55 Chevy wagon, using parts from Classic Performance Products. Following a total suspension and brake upgrade, in this final installment we swap the power steering and a new column. In an ideal world we would have done this at the same time as the suspension mods, but our tech center manager, who performed the work, had other jobs to complete at the same time, which is why you’ll see the new center steering link and tie rods connected to the old Pitman arm in some of the following shots. This enabled him to move the wagon around easily until he tackled the power steering box and column installation.
The CPP centerlink, tie rods, idler arm, and steering arms are all direct bolt-in replacements, using the stock mounting holes where applicable, making the swap a simple one. Switching the box and column wasn’t exactly hard either. However, as we started with a manual steering car with no rag joint between the box and column, we elected to cut through the old inner column just above the box to make removal a great deal easier. Incidentally, though we used a new column, the original can still be modified and retained, just contact CPP for details. Their website also features a number of installation instruction sheets that can be downloaded. These are useful in that you’ll be able to see what you need to do before even ordering the parts!
