Hey guys,
I have found several 1983 tilt columns on vans and truck with the key in the column. I know some on this forum have said that you can remove the key cylinder and fill the hole, but I am curious if they meant grinding down the bump-out that cylinder fits into and then filling the left over hole, or have they just removed the cylinder and just plugged it with a rubber plug. From looking at the collar, I might be able to remove the cylinder, grind down the bump-out and then find another collar and cut a piece of curved area out of it and tack welding it in and then use body filler to finish it off. Anyone have any experience with this? I would really hate to just leave the bump-out in the column as it would detract from the look. Thanks in advance...

Randy

 

Hey Randy grind off where the ignition cylinder sits and fill it. Here is the 83 E150 tilt column in my 55'. A friend in NC did mine for me. He made sure to remove the lock mechanism as well.





One of the beauties of this forum is the help everyone will give one another

 

Wow, he did a great job. I think I may have found a 78 tilt column over in the 73-79 forum, but if it doesn't pan out I will go with this idea! Thanks again.

 

What engine are you gonna be running?

 

I put a tilt column from a 84 F-150 into my 56 Merc coe. I removed all ignition switch components, ground off the bump and filled the hole with Quick Steel forming it inside and out, sanded and painted. I retained the 84 signal switch and tilt. The 56 steering wheel fit the 84 column but had to make a sleeve to fit between bottom of wheel and top of column. I got the sleeve off an old IH truck steering wheel and modified it. Made a horn contact ring and fastened it to under side of 56 wheel with 3 screws. Soldered a wire onto horn contact (under horn button) and fastened to one screw. Haven't wired horn yet but believe it should work. I also haven't made lower bracket yet. Column to dash bracket I made out of an old 22.5 aluminum truck wheel. Have pics on photobucket but don't know how to direct you to them as I'm pretty dumb when it comes to computer stuff. If you know how try using old ugly for search if that helps. If I can get it figured I will post pics. If you want more info will try to help. Hope this is helpful.

 

I plan on running a 302 and AOD.

 

Thanks for the input, I will look into Quick Steel. Is that kind of like JB Weld? I know that somewhere in the 80s they went from a PRNDL on the column to a PRNDL in the dash and 84 may have been the cutoff year.

 

The 78' Truck tilt wont have the OD indicator on it. I think it was about 80' when the trucks went to having the indicator in the dash below the speedometer.

Here is an 80' for sale on Ebay.

 

Ok, good catch... maybe I will stick with a C-4. I didn't see a link to Ebay for that column.

 

Quick Steel is a product that comes in about a 3/4"X3" stick. Has gray outer & black inner (thus 2 parts). With clean hands cut off estimated amount and mix well with fingers to a thick putty. Sets up in about 15 min., completely in about 1 hr., depending on temp. can be drilled & tapped but haven't tried. Column is made from pot metal so would probably need a tig to weld, not sure. It was about 2 yrs. ago when I did mine and memory is a bit fuzzy. I already had 2 or 3 of these columns and the original column was to long for my short legs, that's why I used what I had. Wish I could post pics.

 

Hope this works right



The ring between wheel & column off of IH wheel


Bracket made from old truck wheel


Upper pic-horn contact plate. Lower pic- horn button contact with wire added.