Removing the air bag is illegal and it won't pass inspection.

Honestly I cant stand most custom seering wheels. It seems that almost every one of them I come across is cheaply made.

 

Actually, not terribly hard. I had to modify the firewall to fit the column boot. The mountings used the trucks main column bracket and only required welding 4 threaded bosses to the column. Using the main bracket maintained the break-a-way feature of the column support.
Another bracket had to be made up to support the column down at the firewall.
The trucks steering shaft fit the column without any modification. Even the ignition switch plugged in without any changes.
The gear shifter required new linkage between the column and tranny, but I was running a C4, so it was custom to begin with.
I used the GM column because I had the complete car to use for parts. I wanted tilt and also needed the cruise control. The Hi beam in the signal stalk and the wipers in the column are also a nice feature.
From that car, I used the concealed wiper system, engine, tranny, cruise control, parts from the power windows, steering column and tons of the wiring. It was well worth the $100 for the car.

 

yea sorry u feel that way but he isnt putting one in urs lol ;P

 

No one has done an interior on a pre 91?

 

Did you not see page 2? Sportruk's truck is an 88. Well It kinda is lol

 

Any chance you'd be able to snap some pics of the brackets you made for the steering column? I'm all for custom work, I'm one of the very few who run a Chevrolet hydroboost setup in a Ford truck, so doing fabrication don't scare me one bit, I just wanna have a good idea how involved the whole thing is before I put my truck under the knife... How did you wire up the switches in the column, cut your truck harnesses and splice the Panther harnesses into them? I ain't worried about the ignition switch as I already run toggles in place of it, my headlights are also rewired way different but it would be nice to have the flash-to-pass feature on the signal stalk. Also, later '80s cars were available with automatic lights, and the same module also gives you delayed-exit features - basically lights will come on on their own when the ambient light gets too weak, and they will stay on after you kill the ignition then shut off on their own, I have that setup in my truck and while I don't care for the auto-on feature the delayed-exit one is real nice to have... And if you wanna take it one step further, there is also a system that automatically switches between low and high beams for ya...

 

Indeed, and this can be done to any '87-'91 truck...

 

Which is total bull, I believe it should be one's own and not the DOT's choice of whether to use such personal protection devices - air bags ain't like brakes or suspension, having no air bag in your truck ain't dangerous for other drivers, so it should be of no one's business but your own if you wanna keep the thing in your truck or get rid of it!

That said, the price of the custom steering wheel usually reflects the quality rather well, which is true for most aftermarket stuff really - and since most of us are on a fairly limited budget when it comes to non-essential mods it's of no wonder most custom wheels you've seen have been of the lower quailty, it's usually just what the owner could afford, nothing wrong with it....

 

I never would have guessed that. It looks nothing like mine. lol Very Nice work.

 

I agree that you shouldn't have to have an air bag if you don't want one. I didn't mean that all aftermarket steering wheels were junk. It just seems that most I have seen are cheaply made and have inferior parts. Then again, most I have seen are the A'zone variety like the cheap Grant line. There are some really nice aftermarket steering wheels. I still prefer the stock look though. You could always put a 92-93 steering wheel in place of the air bag wheel. I bet no one would even notice that it was incorrect.

 

My stock wheel is in pretty bad shape. So, instead of buying a new cheapo wrap to go around it, I thought I'd just put a new wheel in. For around 100$ it was worth it to me. Not as nice as a billet Boyd's wheel or something but those are 500 and up.

That yellow truck is super clean. I eventually want to go that far with mine.

 

Agreed, but a factory truck wheel is still a factory truck wheel, if you're looking for a totally different looks I think Sportruk's idea is pretty nice - I actually tried installing a Crown Vic wheel in my truck, but it didn't match, however the Panther column swap opens a whole lot new possibilities... Wonder if there's any factory Ford wheel that is not from a truck but will the truck steering column?

I actually like your steering while quite a bit, I think it looks rather nice.

 

Sportruck,
That's an awesome interior. I was thinking about pulling the radio/HVAC pod out like you've done; it would make it easier to access the controls. How did you handle the HVAC connection?

Can you share how you did the window mod too? I know lots of folks like the fact that our trucks have vent windows, but I can count the number of times I used mine on one hand. What rear view mirror did you use?

Thanks,
Ed

 

Thanks.
I did nothing to the HVAC panel. There was enough slack in the cables to move it out an 1" or 2".
The deleting of the vent window was part of the 3" chop top. I used a Ranger door glass and reshaped the door to fit the glass. I then laid the A pillars back to match the new angle of the doors. All that lowered the roof 3" but also moved the roof back 1.5", so I added 3" to the length of the cab and laid the B pillars forward the meet the roof. The side view mirrors are from a '94 Explorer with some trimming to the base to fit the doors.
BTW, there is no cut glass. It has the fullsize windsheild, the Ranger door glass and the rear window is from a '77 Dodge pickup.

 

Here's what I've done to the 92... nothing much so far...

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