Just an update from a custom steering shop here that Dave told me about...
I spoke with the guy and after seeing the pics of the previous installation, he said it should be 'cut below the bird poop' so there is a nice clean shaft to work with... he says once that is done that something can be fabricated to fit it so it will look and work well and be legal (apparently the way it is isn't legal... what a shock, huh? lol)
Anyway I'll probably end up getting this shop to do the fabrication of whatever I need to put it together properly once we get it cut... Hopefully Mark makes it by tomorrow with something to do the job and by the top of the week I can have the shop working on this...
Thanks to all who contributed their advice and ideas... much appreciated!
~Trev