Lets see some of your steering wheels from boats.

I have been looking for vintage wheels and the prices are out of site and they don't do much for me. So when someone asked me what this cars wheel was in the pics I posted in "The best damned pictures of Goodguys 2010" I said it looked like a boat wheel. Well it looks like I found one and am going to use it but want to see how others have set them up and what styles you have. They are way cooler than most car ones.
This one has the spokes extended which is great for my hotrod as the column seems a bit short. I'm thinking a heavy gold metalic and white grip area. There are so many cooler ones but this one fit my price. Its a 1957 vintage apparently and will work with my car . Check out Ebay, theres some really cool old all metal ones.

 

heres mine i think its early 50s blue star boat

 

Here are some nice boat steering wheels and dashes too. One of the wheels is a '57 Bird I think, but the others are Chris-Craft, Riva, etc.

 

With all the cool wheels from boats, I thought there would be alot more of you that have adapted them to cars. This one was at the Goodguys event. Alot of them are solid stainless steel or all aluminum. They cost way less than car wheels.

 

I use one in my T. I don't have any good photos so I will try to take one and post it here later.

 

boat wheel in my T.

 

So, how are you going to adapt it?

 

I was told this might be a boat steering wheel. I found this ad for an aftermarket wheel that looks a lot like it. It could have been used in a boat.

 

This is what I have decided to use. I mated a quick release to a 1950s Chevy wheel adaptor. The wheel is all aluminum and is 15" dia. I will be painting it black with gold metalflake. with the ribs either polished or painted black. I will fill in the cap screw so it wont be seen.

 

I just realized that my steering wheel is the same as the one that I first posted LOL! It looks like he has added a bullet in the center.

 

I think that's the Sammy Davis Jr. model.

 

I don't know...the patina on your wheel is pretty incredible. I like them with & without the bullet & I also like it polished. I'm glad I don't have to make that call. Very cool wheels in any form.

 

From a 1940's Chris Craft.


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Bad ass thread.

 

Now thats a beauty, reminds me of a miniature 40 Ford steering wheel.

 

It's bigger than a 40 Ford wheel.

 

Its bigger than 17"? I believe thats what my 40 measured. Typically boats are 15"

 

Soooo...

Is that JB weld?

 

Take your eye out?

 

Thats a good "eye" you have there Sammy. The shaft I made is a square taper that fit tight into the square taper on the wheel but to reassure that it was nice and tight I did use JB weld just for insurance purposes. It probably wasn't needed but once I'm done with the wheel and shaft, you won't see it. You wont even see the adapters with the Bell collar that will fit around them. The picture is right after the steering wheel was bolted onto the adapter.
You don't have to like it, I do .The steering wheel isn't finished.
Once its finished, I guarantee it will look bitchin compared to alot of the dull BS plastic cracked wheels out there.

 

60's boat..

 

These look better then I always thought, Cool as Hell. Thought about trying it a few years back but didn't quit know how to mate it to steering shaft. Whats some of you all's ways of mounting them. Still want to do it, sold the wheel I had, now I have to find another.

 

Hey Whippet,
Just so there's not a case of mistaken identity. I made the Sammy Davis Jr. reference, but not the comment about your wheel.
Just wanted to straighten that out.
(Hell, I piss enough people off my own se'f, don't need help from anybody!)

 

I think with boat steering wheels as far as mounting, it all depends on what wheel you have. Also check Ebay for vintage boat steering wheels.

 

No problem and as far as the Sammy joke, I personally don't see the reference.

 

Yeah, you have to be of (ahem) "a certain age" to get that one.
The entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. lost an eye on the steering wheel of a '50s Cadillac in a crash.

 

Well there you go. Almost 50 and didn't know that bit of trivia. Sammy Davis wasn't really my type of music but did hear alot of him, Dean Martin, and Fankie.

 

I think the accident occured on the way to his Bar Mitzvah.

 

With Fankie..

 

Fankie was the lesser known member of the rat pack.