This is actually a 1936 Ford Cabriolet that I built into a 1958 style Hot Rod with 57 Corvette engine and a lot of other really cool stuff that is all absolutely period correct.
We started with a 1937 steering column because it was the first year for the roller bearing steering cluster.
There was a number of slight modifications to put this whole thing together, including the mount to the frame, the mount to the dash, the indent for the steering lock, the key way cut in the steering wheel, the ball bearing support for the upper shaft, the special one off ring to adapt the light switch knob to the wheel, and the tweaking of the 1939 horn button to make it work in the 1936 knob with the 36 ring. I painted the light switch knob to match the rest of the knobs and painted the wheel hub to match the original 1940 Ford dash color.
The whole thing works well, just as it would if it had come from the factory this way. Easy you think? Give it a try! Oh yea, and the recasting of the wheel ring to make it match the color of the original 1940 Ford knobs that required about as much tweaking to make them support the functions of this 1958 period correct hot rod.
Yes we had the knob of the turn signal switch recast as well, so it would match the knobs on the dash and window cranks.
For those of you not familiar with the early Fords of this era, the beige color part in the middle of the steering wheel, with the red stripes, is the light control knob. It controls the switch at the other end of the column by a shaft that runs down the center of the column.
2 comments:
I'm not for cosmetic modifications unless the change appears to be as from the factory. This mod is great since it looks how it should've looked when it left the factory the first time. This is how mods should be done. Great job.
Thank you for the compliment. Design in my opinion is very important. Changing things on cars just for the sake of doing so is very counterproductive in that aspect. Again, thanks for the much respected comment.
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