1969 Barracuda 340 Formula S - Sprucing Up and Finishing Touches
Before I took delivery of the cuda, I saw photos and immediately recognized that the steering wheel was old and tired.
I found repro steering wheels available from Classic Industries and ordered the full steering wheel kit with a new horn pad and center logo. I believe this is made by OER.
This would be my first experience with repop parts and it didn't go well. After a few weeks of reading these forums, I understand that repop parts are generally disliked and now I am starting to understand why.
Looks great. Can't wait to install it!
Uh, that doesn't look right.
The turn signal pin is rotated 180 degrees on the wrong side.
After I confirmed that it is indeed in the wrong position I was able to lube it up and gently tap it around with a mallet so it is in the correct position.
The horn didn't work! After some investigation I traced it to the connection on the new steering wheel. After cutting away the heat shrink I discovered a terrible solder job. I got my 80 watt soldering iron out and reset the solder connection and put fresh heat shrink over it.
Next problem was that the horn ring was contacting the steering wheel arms with a loud clank whenever the horn was pressed. The only solution I could see was to add washers to the assembly to add a little space. Problem solved!
I couldn't get the new horn pad to lock on the new horn ring. I discovered that the metal ramped surfaces were too rough and the metal tabs inside the horn pad were just digging into the soft metal. I smoothed these surfaces with a small hand file and was able to get the horn pad installed easily. (I don't have a photo of before)
I'm not happy with the gap behind the wheel but I don't think there is much I can do about it. I would like to take the wheel off some day and see if I can improve this. Obviously, the washers I added for space are somewhat to blame. It seems that this OER steering wheel assembly just has some finer details and dimensions that are a little off from stock.
As a final insult, the new Barracuda logo is rotated slightly counter-clockwise from the original and there is no way to adjust this.
In the end it looks great and is a huge improvement to the overall appearance of the interior.
Before I took delivery of the cuda, I saw photos and immediately recognized that the steering wheel was old and tired.
I found repro steering wheels available from Classic Industries and ordered the full steering wheel kit with a new horn pad and center logo. I believe this is made by OER.
This would be my first experience with repop parts and it didn't go well. After a few weeks of reading these forums, I understand that repop parts are generally disliked and now I am starting to understand why.
Looks great. Can't wait to install it!
Uh, that doesn't look right.
The turn signal pin is rotated 180 degrees on the wrong side.
After I confirmed that it is indeed in the wrong position I was able to lube it up and gently tap it around with a mallet so it is in the correct position.
The horn didn't work! After some investigation I traced it to the connection on the new steering wheel. After cutting away the heat shrink I discovered a terrible solder job. I got my 80 watt soldering iron out and reset the solder connection and put fresh heat shrink over it.
Next problem was that the horn ring was contacting the steering wheel arms with a loud clank whenever the horn was pressed. The only solution I could see was to add washers to the assembly to add a little space. Problem solved!
I couldn't get the new horn pad to lock on the new horn ring. I discovered that the metal ramped surfaces were too rough and the metal tabs inside the horn pad were just digging into the soft metal. I smoothed these surfaces with a small hand file and was able to get the horn pad installed easily. (I don't have a photo of before)
I'm not happy with the gap behind the wheel but I don't think there is much I can do about it. I would like to take the wheel off some day and see if I can improve this. Obviously, the washers I added for space are somewhat to blame. It seems that this OER steering wheel assembly just has some finer details and dimensions that are a little off from stock.
As a final insult, the new Barracuda logo is rotated slightly counter-clockwise from the original and there is no way to adjust this.
In the end it looks great and is a huge improvement to the overall appearance of the interior.