Thread: Steering column tech help

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John Brian, Tech1 makes it sound easy and the stuff Bob shows is perfected simplicity, but if you are less experienced like me here are a few amateur comments. The problem is that without the hole it is hard to see both sides of the firewall (interior and exterior) at the same time. The best advice I got from the Forum (sorry about the forgotton source) was to get a thick wooden dowel and whittle it to fit into the universal joint on the steering box (Vega in my case) and then move it around to where it will clear the exhaust manifold and frame rail and project to a spot on the engine side of the firewall. If you can take out the floor boards enough to see where this spot is on the inside that is very helpful but if not drill a small pilot hole where you think it should be and find out where that comes through on the inside. I messed with this wiggeling dowel lineup on and off for several months before I got up the nerve to use the hole saw on the firewall. In my case I added a 3/8" thick aluminum plate to the inside of the fiberglass firewall for strength and to create a flat mounting surface since the column needed to come though the side of the firewall dish which is a very curvey surface. Then, as usual, I bought several gadgets from Speedway and messed around with them until after trial and error I found I could use the simpler universal column mount and cover it with a leather boot from Speedway that hides the gosh awful gadgetry. Bob's installation is a thing of beauty but I bet when my leather boot is on there it won't show anything but a sports car look at the bottom of the column. I also had adventures trying to adapt a non-tilt Camaro column but it was ugly so I finally broke down and bought an Ididit tilt column which then went through three patch up repainting jobs due to scratching during trial fits of the column. In my ''29 A replica the column is not quite perfectly aligned even with the tilt column and I had to resort to a small flat wheel without any dish just to allow my medium sized belly to get into the car so it is a series of compromises but I can sit in there and see through the chopped windshield OK so I am not going to change it anymore! In my estimation the best advice I can give it to use the "dowel-pointer" trick to line up the place for the hole. Once you make the hole it will be hard to patch up in a different place. Here is a picture of the hole and Speedway bracket before I put the column in but after several trials which scratched the paint on the column. I am giving you a worst case scanario compared to the beautiful work Bob shows but maybe my bumbling effort turned out "OK" and has some educational value? One other problem is that the hole will probably need to be oval since the column is at an angle and you will need some sort of grommet to seal the edges. Once again my trusty rat tail file was very useful to clearance the hole around the column. I was able to use a short piece of foam rubber grooved fender welt to make a grommet around the column which looks OK from a distance! Good Luck!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder