Have any of you ever modified a steering wheel by either welding another hub to it or by shortening the wheel's diameter? How did that go? I'm not afraid of my welds, but I have heard that it is best not to weld steering components. What are your thoughts?
having raced dirt track cars i have welded about ever part of the steering on a car from the stg arms, pitman arm, and the shaft. you will get a lot of opinions on this but you say you are not afraid of your welds so?
Same here. If you know how to weld and have the proper equipment, no problem. If you are unsure, have a certified welder do it for you.. Brian
old dirt tracker is right if you trust that your welds penetrate and are strong then you can do almost anything. My brother in law had a ghetto nova wheel that fit his 49 chevy five window. When we choppedthe roof the deep dish steering wheel was way in your face. In his pile of junk he found an old 40's or 50's wheel that was flatter. I modified it to fit. I hole sawed the hub out of the nova wheel and then did the same to the older wheel. Then I cleaned things up, checked fit and welded it in. He's drove it around alot without power steering and hasn't had problems with it. Each wheel is made differently it seems so you just have examine the wheel as best as possible to find the metal. Good Luck.
You see, I thought this was the case. I know my welds are strong, and I trust them. I was just curious if any of yall had done this. When I weld something, I have the tendency to over-brace the important stuff, but it never causes a problem. I have this fear that if I don't over brace the important stuff, it could turn into a major problem. Call it intuition. Call it crazy. Just don't call me Shirley. I hate that name.
Weld it up. Bolt it to your work bench, and try to break it with you own two arms....! That is the load it will see - Those before me told you correctly, The ( no welds on steering components ) warning is to keep the ( um - less talented Hot Rod welders ) from burning on components from steering box to the spindles. Thats were ( tork multiplied loads from gear reduction in your box & power units ) + bumps in the road kick the load on you parts up a bit.
You can weld like crazy on a steering wheel with no worries. I welded a fabricated plate center into the Corvair steering wheel in my '53 Chevy (there's even a tech post about it somewhere on the HAMB). Your steering wheel does not experience heavy loads. (It can only do what your hands tell it to do, and if you have an accident that will break your wheel, it will jerk out of your hands anyway). Heck, most aftermarket wheels are held on by just three little bolts!
25 years ago I made a Ford banjo wheel into a wood rimmed wheel. The early wood wheels had wood riveted on both sides of a steel flat rim. I cut out the wood wheel spider and notched the flat circle so that the stainless spokes extended under the wood after it was reinstalled. I had to notch the underside of the wood for the welds. I used br*** oval head screws and nuts to reattach the wood. After the wood was refinished it looked pretty good. This was long before wood rimmed wheels became run of the mill. I saw the truck about a year ago and it's still running that wheel.
This is a good topic cause me and my friend Chris where just discussing the idea of me wanting to put an aftermarket column in my 50 Merc. Yet I still want to retain the Merc wheel. As you all may already know the merc wheel doesnt have splines it has a keyway... So I'm thinking of cutting out the keyway slot and welding in a splined centerpiece. Dont be scared of welding anything, Its just metal. Hell if it breaks just have a pair of vicegrips near by
I have a merc, put a shorty tilt column in it. I put the stock steering wheel on by drilling three holes to line up with the three holes on an aftermarket Grant steering wheel adapter. Works like a charm. I modified the horn to work off of the stock horn ring. (I couldn't explain with out pics) A ton of work (the horn that is) but it has the stock look and works correctly.
I used the stock center and a ring from a later 15 inch wheel,weld it up the fill with epoxy. Lowlidx50
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