Which steering column mount?
 

I have an Ididit column which I am mounting but haven't been able to find a mount that would be an obvious choice for the firewall. Thought I'd check here to see what other people used.

Thanks,

MC

Motorcity,

I just purchased a custom length tilt column from Flaming River to replace the original GM column that I used when I built the car in 1990. Flaming River has a column mount drop bracket that I welded a new small angle bracket on the cowl bar to receive the Flaming river drop. This was a very simple process, just required to remove dash panel and fabricate a small bracket. This was FAR superior to CR's original single bolt set-up.

Flaming river also manufactures numerous plates with a swivel bearing for firewall protrusion. These are all very high quality and superior to the original CR design of the column support on the firewall of only the fiberglass firewall itself. Due to the limited space on the CR firewall, I purchased a support for an F-150 firewall protrusion and simple cut the plate down to fit in the area on CR cobra. After final cutting, drilling small holes for 1/4-20 bolts to affix to the firewall, I polished the aluminum plate and it looks great. This set-up is far superior to the original column design from CR.

A side note, I purchased a Tilt/NO KEY column as I never did care for the "Square GM style key" used for ignition and accessory. I added a separate ignition switch mounted just right of the column in the dash. No more GM style key.

Rbgray1,
can you post any pictures of what you did. Sounds interesting and I'm curious to see.

Thanks,
John

Rb,
Well done!
DV

rbgray1,

"I purchased a support for an F-150 firewall protrusion".

Would you give me a little more detail on this? Purchased at Ford dealer?

Thanks for the input, this is what I am looking for.

MC

Motor City,

I was slightly wrong, the firewall protrusion that Flaming River offers is for an F-100. The reason I bought this unit is that it has a large aluminum plate that the swivel hub is mounted to. This allowed me to cut down the overall plate dimensions to fit into the small space on the CR1 firewall protrusion.

You can see this item on Flaming River's website if you review the accessories. I'm pretty fortunate as I live in the Cleveland Ohio area and Flaming River is about a 10 minute drive from my house, I just walked in with my old set-up and worked with one of their customer service people to determine what would work best. Another interesting note is that the column they made me is a "custom" size and still only took them 3-4 days to make to match up with the POS Chevette Tilt column that the CR1 originally called for.

I'd love to send pics, but this was the first thing I did to the CR1 I built 26 years ago before completely dismantling. I currently have the body off and going through suspension upgrades, riv nut installation for all body mount points (rather than silly self tapping screws that CR called for, etc. I can send you a copy of my invoice from Flaming River so you can see the parts list if you want? Send me your email address.

I also spent a little more on the fully polished column, it looked fantastic before I dismantled the interior, far better than a POS GM column in a predominantly Ford product. I'm not a GM hater, I also own a 2010 C6 Vette I bought new.

Let me know if you need a copy of my Flaming River Invoice.

Thanks DV,

Thanks again for forwarding your phone number a few weeks ago. I've just been swamped with honey do items for the last few weeks and haven't been able to reach out. I also want to write down a list of the questions I have for you as everytime I'm reviewing the original build manual, and think about how to do things better and more solid, I come up with another question for you. I want to be respectful of your time and prolific experience and get your feedback without being a pest.

I look forward to talking with you soon.

MotorCity,

Here is the link to Flaming River's website for accesories. I chose the F-100 mount because it had enough aluminum around the swivel bearing to cut down to size for the CR1 opening. They have very nice polished swivel mounts that are "universal fit" however their outer diameter is too large to fit in the confined space on the CR1 firewall column protrusion area.

Floor Mounts - GM/Chevrolet Bel Air - Ford Mustang

Hope this helps.

Thanks, rbgrey1.

It was kinda funny when I realized you actually bought the plate for a 1953 Ford truck. I work for Ford and was trying to figure out what firewall plate you had purchased. I had assumed
it was probably from the past half century, but I was wrong. Thanks again for the input.

Just like the reason you went with Flaming River (10 minutes from your house), I went with Ididit (1 hour from my house to get there.... 3 hours to return as I pass Cabelas on the way). I'll check directly with them to see what they have.

MC

Your welcome MotorCity,

As a side note, since I had to cut the aluminum plate down quite a bit, I drilled and chamferred 4 holes for 1/4-20 Oval Head Bolts (one on each corner of the plate) for the firewall protrusion. Even though the plate is very large, it does support the column much better at the firewall than the column just supported by fiberglass. When I get the body back on the car I will also mount the plate with some Automotive Panel Bonding adhesive to assist the 1/4-20s to hold the plate firmly in place without any potential for movement.

I've always been concerned/surprised that the original CR build instructions were less than stellar in terms of solid mounting. The original and only attachment point on my CR1 for the column is the silly single 3/8 bolt to the mounting tab on the cowl bar and the rest of the column just supported by the fiberglass firewall. In my mind, this is a HUGE SAFETY issue, as DV has called out before. I feel much better with using the Flaming River Column drop that mounts to a new bracket I made for the cowl bar and the firewall support bearing for the column. This connection is solid, the column doesn't budge when you yank on it or use it for ingress/egress and most importantly, IT'S FAR SAFER than the original CR1 build instructions. The original CR Design depends on one single bolt attached to the cowl and if something happens that causes that attachement point to fail I personally don't want to be behind the wheel at 70 plus mph, no thank you.

I feel far better with the improved set-up.

I agree. I was always planning on using the drop mount at the I/P location, just looking for options for the firewall mount. As noted earlier, I'll check with Ididit and see what they have, or I'll design my own.

Thanks again for the input.

MC

Rbgray- did you have any issues from the heat when welding your new bracket to the cowl bar? I have my dash out completely right now just nervous about welding in such close proximity to the body.

CR67rep,

I did it with the body off and the cowl bar completely exposed, so it was a little easier for me.

However, it still should be no problem with the body on. Here would be my recommended steps.

1. completely remove factory angle bracket for column attachment with a cutoff wheel and carefully grind off weld from the cowl bar tubing being careful to not grind in to the tubing itself. Leave as much tubing material as possible.

2. Create two new 1.5 inch wide "straps" out of 3/16 CRS with a 1/4 hole that will be welded to the two cowl bar tubes. These straps will be "u-shaped" with 90 degree angles on each end the width of the inside of the two cowl bars. the amount of "drop" with the 90 bend is dependent on which steering column mount you purchased.

3. temporarily bolt your steering column mount to these new brackets and mount your steering column in the car, adjusting up and down as necessary to set correct angle for dashboard clearance etc.

4. Once dry fit is good, clamp the two straps on the cowl bar and weld the "straps" appropriately to the two cowl bars.

5. MOST IMPORTANT...you should have enough clearance above the cowl bar to slide a flat piece of sheet metal above the cowlbar and under the fiberglass cowl. This should alleviate any concerns with burning the fiberglass cowl. If you set your welder appropriately you should be able to conduct good heat penetration welds without heating the fiberglass cowl.

I'm sorry I'm not near my car for the next several days otherwise I would take pictures for you.

Rb-
Many thanks for the detailed reply. Good timing too as I intend on finishing up the column install this week/weekend. Already missed a couple shows this year and hoping to make the power tour but we'll see