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FIREWALL MODS

After a few more unplanned delays, I finished up the steering wheel restoration. It turned out pretty good.... not perfect but good enough for me. Unfortunately I did take pics with the topcoat on it but there are some pics of it installed a little later.

I did take the steering column to a local machine shop and they did shorten it and c'bore the end I cut from the old stock steering box for the new bearing I bought. Once that was done then it was time to shift the firewall penetration outward a bit to allow the steering linkage to clear the header primaries. I calculated that it need to move about 1/2”, so I cut a nice square area (ok...sorta square) around the hole and shifted it over the 1/2”and filled in the void. Then I fit the cut and modified column into position to see how to column needed to interface with the angled plate I had made to secure it to the firewall. Once I had the angle that the column intersected the plate then I cut an elliptical/oblong hole thru it for the column to pass thru.

The oblong hole took a little time to fine tune but after that I then match-drilled two clearance holes for 5/16 fasteners in the angled plate and the firewall and welded two square nuts onto the angle plate and bolted the plate in place on the firewall. I then rigged the column in place and tack welded it to plate. I then pulled the column assembly and final welded it.

With the column assembly completed, next up was to shorten the inner solid shaft and notch the end to fit the u-joint. I took my time and with a hand grinder a set of mics cut the shaft to length and notched it to fit. I then slid the inner shaft into place and then mounted the restored steering wheel. The only issue that I ran into was that the new horn contact spring assembly was a little long and interfered with the hold button assembly, so I had to trim it to fit. I then mounted everything, steering column, wheel and brake master cylinder, in to place. Next I will assemble this again and grind the welds and primer the applicable parts.