68 GT convertible project
Well I finally got the steering column done. I'm still working on the steering wheel. The horn ring is pitted so I'll have to fugure out what to do there. I'm sure rechroming pot metal isn't cheap.
Here are some "before" pictures of the column. Obviously there was a moisture issue in the interior for awhile.
I soaked the column jacket, inner tube and lower steering shaft in acid to clean them up. The car originally had power steering but I'm converting it to manual. The replacement K-member I bought came with a lower steering shaft and coupler from a manual steering car. I separated the inner and outer steering shafts and installed the manual steering shaft in place of the original.
The inner tube was heavily pitted. Instead of trying to sand out the pits, I just painted it with stainless steel paint. Then I turned my attention to the lower bearing. A replacement stock style bearing is around $85. I bought an insert bearing for $12 online. It took a little time to figure out a way to get it to work. Basically I had to grind about 3/16" off the bottom of the inner tube and use the original plastic lower bearing as a bushing.(the internal metal parts of the bushing were removed and the plastic was modified slightly) Here is what I came up with.
The turn signal switch is still good so I reused it. The wiring connecter was broken however so I purchased a new one online. The mounting brackets were heavily pitted so I had to spray them with high build primer and sand them before painting them gloss black. The upper pieces of the column as well as the column jacket were sprayed with Rustoleum fine texture.
Well I finally got the steering column done. I'm still working on the steering wheel. The horn ring is pitted so I'll have to fugure out what to do there. I'm sure rechroming pot metal isn't cheap.
Here are some "before" pictures of the column. Obviously there was a moisture issue in the interior for awhile.
I soaked the column jacket, inner tube and lower steering shaft in acid to clean them up. The car originally had power steering but I'm converting it to manual. The replacement K-member I bought came with a lower steering shaft and coupler from a manual steering car. I separated the inner and outer steering shafts and installed the manual steering shaft in place of the original.
The inner tube was heavily pitted. Instead of trying to sand out the pits, I just painted it with stainless steel paint. Then I turned my attention to the lower bearing. A replacement stock style bearing is around $85. I bought an insert bearing for $12 online. It took a little time to figure out a way to get it to work. Basically I had to grind about 3/16" off the bottom of the inner tube and use the original plastic lower bearing as a bushing.(the internal metal parts of the bushing were removed and the plastic was modified slightly) Here is what I came up with.
The turn signal switch is still good so I reused it. The wiring connecter was broken however so I purchased a new one online. The mounting brackets were heavily pitted so I had to spray them with high build primer and sand them before painting them gloss black. The upper pieces of the column as well as the column jacket were sprayed with Rustoleum fine texture.
