Here's a little snout support I fabbed up for a 40 ford cross-steer box mounted in a side-steer config... First, I made the templates from cardboard...
Next I cut the 2 pieces out of some 1/4" plate. Bent the back piece along the indicated line, tacked the two pieced together, and drilled out the hole for the snout. I used a cross-burr bit in a die-grinder to fit the hole to the snout.
In the previous pics, you can see where I drilled the mounting holes, an aesthetic 'lightening' hole, and contoured the under frame mount. Here is the mount resting on the snout/frame.
Next I have some 5/8 steel rod and some grade 8 3/8 bolts... I need to decide if I want to do a set-bolt config, or turn the hole thing into a C-clamp... I think the set bolt will be stronger but the C-clamp config will hold the snout tighter... The mount will be fastened with either some rivet-head bolts or nuts... Or just plain riveted.
I decided to go the C-Clamp route... So here's the 5/8" rod I used for the clamp... I cut a 1 3/4" piece off, drilled it through the center, tapped it to 3/8-16 and welded it on the trailing edge of the clamp...
Here it is basically finished... It needs to be cleaned up a bit and I think the gap needs to be bigger on the clamp because the 2 cross-steer boxes I have are quite a bit different in the snout. But I ran out of time tonight... I'll pretty it up and post it tomorrow...
The Jalopy Journal
