Well here it is, the column housing has no continuity to the steering shaft. So removing paint or better body ground would not fix the problem.
Steering rack is mounted with rubber bushings and I was thinking (that's the problem) I would have ground through the tie rods/spindles....etc
After further pondering I realized the upper and lower a-frames are mounted on urethane bushings....so no ground.
I guess I just figured out why Ford uses two wires (power in/out) for the horn circuit. I ran a ground wire from the rack to the frame....problem solved.

Thanks for the input.....