Joe H; I'm jumping in here a little late, but as to modern tie rod ends - Chev's of the 40's sells them with a non-tapered shank, they just bolt into the old steering arm holes after you bang the old ball studs out. I've got them on my '53. I did have to use a slim spacer to move the steering arm away from the spindle so that they wouldn't scrape the radials on a tight turn.
I'm going to look into an adjustable drag link too. Sounds good to me.
