As has been mentioned, the removal of the front steady rest on the ’54-’56 Ford cars is quite common. Here are some links to past threads talking about the steady rests or ‘front motor mount’ on the cars.
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/FindPost20565.aspx
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic44306.aspx
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic66354.aspx
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/FindPost66358.aspx
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic64787.aspx
Doing an advanced search using 'steady rest' as the search terms and defining the search with using: ALL keywords will bring up more.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)