What is an "ididit"" steering column?

A very nice high quality piece that will work very well for you. Manufactured in the United States of America by some very friendly people who will answer any and every question that you may have, the people also are rodders, not sure if they would be street rodders or hotrodders, as if that really matters. Some people make cookies by hunting down the cow, mashing their own beans, building their own stoves and such, some people add things to their store bought batch to make them unique, some buy a batch from some one who makes cookies, in the end you have a cookie plain as that, it's either suck or not. Same with a column, an Ididit is a nice add your own or buy some ones cookies column, works well without the hunting, the snake wrestling or the part that some consider the fun. I'm sure any one who would be negative about this would be proud to own the company and sell these types of columns to those of us who would buy one. I use a dentist too, don't do my own fillins, I guess I'm a nance.

 

I have a painted steel ididit in my coupe. I tried to make it look more vintage with the Juliano's wheel and '59 chevy knobs on the turn signals and tilt. I don't know that I would go that route again if I had it to do over, but I will say that the tilt was nice to have when I drove down the 1200 miles to Texas.

 

the only thing iam saying is ....i did'nt do it
its all good.

 

X2
In other words, no hot rod fun.
But if you are building a STREET rod, go for it.

Edit: Re paul's post above, it looks fine in his street rod (and his rod looks great), and I'm not knocking street rods, just that trad rodding to me means doing it yourself. Like, the column on my current build I made from exhaust pipe....

 

I did a buddies stitches once...Yea, yous guys are a buncha nancies.

 

not being a smart ass, but I guess you also fabbed up your valve covers, cast your own "vintage" intake and pistons and ground your own cam?

So where do you draw the line? I think idit does a great job and they have some nice products.


Oh, and maybe you need to familiarize yourself with the krip kart, it is a bad ass custom, not really street roddy at all, just modified in the back to make room for paul's wheel chair.

Definately not a "Streetrod"!

 

In answer to the original question;an ididit steering column is one that can be custom tailored to suit just about any application and in any price range.

That being said I would like to add my twopence into the discussion.

I live about two miles from the company and have had the pleasure of knowing Ken and Jane Callison for about 13 years.As was stated before,this business was started in Ken's garage when he was employed by Ford Motor Company and has grown to the point where the business is in a 25,000 sq.ft. building and employs about 30 people.They have also sold nearly 200 THOUSAND steering columns and on that basis I would think they are doing something at least partially right.

Their staff that man the phones and wait on the counter are extremely knowledgeable and mostly car builders themselves as is Ken.They will go out of their way to help a customer with a problem.

They also host seminars during the winter on many related subjects.For a very modest fee(usually about $5)they have people come in to do talks on painting(Jon Kosmoski from HOK),metal shaping,wiring,and a dozen other subjects while serving food and coffee.Attendance is usually at least 200 per seminar.

Their open house every October usually attracts 1000 plus cars(this year it rained and they still got 400 plus cars)and the trophies are made in house.This year they had 1/4 scale steering columns mounted on a crystal base and in the goodie bags tiny billet steering columns made into key chains.

Granted;a lot of the products they sell are not what would be termed"traditional" but they are a big part of the hot rod movement and as was said before produce a great product at a reasonable price that is made in this country.All I can add is nearly two hundred thousand people can't be all wrong.

 

I wanted to do it, but my wife said "I'm tired, not tonight dear".

 

What do the nay sayers do for a living? They must do something or make something, are all of their customers sally and nancy for not being willing to do what they do for a living? These are quality people, employing quality people, take your boots off and stop kicking them, it's bullshit.

 

No one is kicking them. People are simply commenting on their products' place in the industry.

 

I got a Speedway column for my 55 racecar project. It's a bare bones column which is what I want, but I gotta admit the quick disconnect hub isn't anything to brag about. The hub fits REAL loose compared to some others. I'll probably cut the splines off the steering shaft and install a quick disconnect with a little closer tolerances. I'm not bitching about the column, it was the closest to what I needed and I figured I might have to modify it a little. Just saying it's not perfect outta the box.
Larry T

 

*********

 

Yep, it's a bit loose, for sure. Here's what I did to fix it: I installed a rubber hockey puck between the steering wheel and the hub. This formed a slight interference between the top of the splined shaft and the puck, which tightened up everything. No more rattle/loose wheel. Yeah, a real hockey puck! Hey, it's a hot rod, right? Use whatcha got!

 

That's it!! ENOUGH!! ALL OF YOU DRAMA QUEENS ARE GROUNDED FOR A WEEK!! NO HOTRODS FOR 1 WHOLE WEEK!!

Ididit builds columns that would be very fitting for several traditional builds. I agree with the idea that this traditional things gets grossly over-played sometimes. I have a Riviera tilt column for one of my builds. Should I toss it out?

 

Had one put in our 1954 Chevy p/u several years ago-builder called me and said the steering wheel wouldn't go down all the way on the shaft. My heart sank...

I called Ididit-I explained the problem and I was turned over to a machinist in the shop-John(?)-he explained that when the columns are shipped they get thrown around by the loaders since they are in a carboard package the length of the column-the impacts releases the preload on the shaft.

He told me to send it back and they would repair it for me for nothing!

Our oldest daughter lives in Ann Arbor where her husband is finishing med school so when we went back I drove out to Tecumseh to the plant and delivered the column-met John-spent some time talking with the staff and was shown around.

The repaired column was waiting for us when we got home les than a week later.

I'm not a mechanic and they treated me without condescension-asked me to send pictures of the finished interior-I just got that done before taking it to Bonneville last month.

The pictures will go out shortly...with my thanks and best wishes!

I would use another Ididit column and parts in a heartbeat.

 

Time for the Mods to plock this thread .. Can't please everone on the HAMB

Next time you want drama go to the movies.

 

I think some people need to loosen their skin a little. LOL.

 

I see on their site now that they copied my idea on the GM knobs... Hahaha!

 

Because of this thread I'm gonna look into buying one now! Thanks!

 

Absolutly!! WTF were you thinking?...as you slide by my trash cans..3rd house on your left (remember?)..let me know just before you dump it...ok?

Oh on the traditional thing..

Tradition is a Guide people..not a Jailer

 

No kidding, I'm surprised Speedway Orders don't come with Fortune Cookies!

 

I got a lucky cockroach once.

 

I got an ididit column in my 50 and I like it. Works flawlessly and fit perfectly.

 

Ah yes traditional HAMB intolerance - what the fuck is the matter with some of you guys? Nothing better to do than create some drama - need to get a life perhaps?

 

I think I'm straddling the fence on this one. On one hand yes, I'd much rather scrounge through a wrecking yard for the part I want.. but that's me. What if I can't find what I want and there's a time crunch? What if I don't have a lot of resources available as far as older parts? I'm glad there are businesses out there that can help when you're in a crunch or you just can't find what you want... We're all car guys.. I'm not going to get in a huff over a new column, especially if the guy's done the work himself to the rest of his ride and it looks great.. To each his own.

 

"I did it" to mine.Seems like I'm "always doing it" and
at my age thats why I needed glasses !!!!!! LOL Tom (Tired Old Man)

 

Now ^that is some funny shit!

 

always heard of them, never knew they were in Michigan so that's cool...for the lazy guy who doesn't want to search google..how much does an average tilt column cost from them?

 

I went and looked at thier site. they make some cool ones too. non-tilt though. they make a little 1 foot long one if you have clearance issues in that area.

I bet I spent only 10 bucks on a bearing to hook my stock column up to my rack & pinion. good enough for me.

 

All I was saying is they DO have very traditional columns and that what you put on your cars is up to you and there is no black and white line as to what is traditional and what is not. People have thier own ideas as to how far is too far and what is just right. Not one of us are the HAMB traditional police so to call a nice custom a streetrod because it has an ididit column is like saying its not traditional because it has a new set of tires on it or any number of a hundred other things.

Maybe people should be more focused on the quality and safety of the build then exactly how old a part is.

There are some VERY nice traditional cars on here that may or may not fit your vision but may fit someone elses vision of what is traditional. I'm just wondering what makes someone a traditional expert and qualified to determine what class others builds fall under?

I prefer to keep an open mind. It opens up so many possibilies that would otherwise be closed.