Ok, now my car has started to show a little progress, I can post the resto in detail. I started by stripping the car. Every wire, almost every nut and bolt. This car will be getting some major modifications both mechanical, and cosmetic.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Including the firewall. This car will be getting Vintage air, with integrated heat and defrost, allowing me to smooth the firewall. I will also be using a 92 camro "delay" wiper motor.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Some rust in the battery box area of the core support. Yearone's repair panel will be used here as it is too difficult to make the body mount box on my own. Look for a piece on the install of that later. Damn, the files to big, wont attatch. Oh well, we all know what battery box rust looks like.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Next the door handles were removed, and holes welded shut. I will be using Electric-life 45lb pull electric solenoids with 4 button remote.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid The right front fender had about a dime sized rust hole, and I found the surrounding metal to be thinner than I liked. A section was cut out, patch panel made, and welded in. The left fender however was completely solid. The beauty of a California car.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid The hood will be getting a 3" "Outlaw" steel cowl hood from the Speed Center. I will cover the fittment and welding as I get to it. The hood will also get 70 Olds W-30 twist in hood pins from Year One.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Today I installed the 92 Camaro steering colum. This is a tilt colum with floor shift. After I wire the car it will have funtional column mounted wipers, and cruise. The first step was selecting a column. I chose 89-92 Camaro column for the following reasons... First It is only .25" longer from the base of the steering wheel to the base of the column. Tilt wheel. All Camaros are floor shifted. Wipers/brights/cruise on the column. And easy to find. Here is a pic of the Camaro column next to the Skylark column. This install was Soooooo easy.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Be sure to get a complete column, rag joint, ignition switch (key), bright switch, ect... The first thing I did was compare the two. Measuring everything at least twice. The big difference comes after the universal joint. they use different fittings from the U joint to the shaft. The camaro shaft was also 4 inches shorter than the skylark shaft.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid after measuring one more time (just to be sure) I cut the camaro shaft 3 inches below the universal. I then removed the sleeve. (hang on to it!)
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Here is the sleeve I saved. It made a perfect coupler for the camaro column, and the lower half of the Skylark shaft. The camaro and skylark shafts are the same dimensions
69 skylark GS400 hybrid Next I removed the dash mounting bracket from my skylarks column. The Camaro mounting bracket is much wider. I bolted the skylark bracket on the camaro column with 2 washers spacing the side with the actuator lever for the bright switch out to clear the rod. (you will also have to grind a small notch in the bracket to clear the bend in the rod. Then I bolted the column to the dash, with no firewall mount.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid after seeing that everything lined up, and still looked that it would work, I pulled the column again. The camaro column has a welded on firewall bracket that was about 1/16" to low for my firewall, and was much smaller than the hole in the firewall. That would have required fabrication. So I ground the bracket off, leaving the column nice and smooth. I then bolted the Skylark firewall bracket in its place 1/16" higher on the shaft. In the process, providing a smooth, factory fit, with no fabrication. I forgot to take a pic, will post tomarrow.
69 skylark GS400 hybrid I then cut the shaft off my skylark column right at the universal joint, leaving it about 1" longer than I needed (to be safe). I measured the distance from the steering box to the severed end of my camaro shaft, subtracted 1/4", and cut my skylark shaft again. Then I installed the skylark shaft on the steering box.
Then I reinstalled the column, tightening both the firewall and dash brackets. Slid the camaro sleeve that I saved down to make a perfect, solid joint between the camaro and skylark shafts, with about a 1/4' gap (inside the sleeve) between the two shafts. I spot welded my sleeve, and whalaa, I am steering again. To ease wiring of this column I will be wiring the car with 16 circuit fuse block and wiring harness of the camaro. To utilize the wipers and cruise I will also install the camaro's cruise control unit, and fabricate the firewall and wiper transmission to accept the camaros delay wiper motor. (Oh, the camaro wiper motor is much thinner, giving me more clearance for my big block drop in. I will cover all this in detail as I accomplish it. Thanks for viewing.
After the car is painted, and mechanicals are finished, it will get a grant GT wheel from OPG. 3 spoke polished aluminum elite, with buick horn button.
Verrrrrrry nice :TU: :beer Your other car is Sweeet too !! Do you have a "Thing" for 68/69's too ?? ....too bad your not closer - I've got a SportWagon that could use some of your massaging
Skyman, Do you know if your plastic dash piece will fit over the bottom of the column and also will your original dash bezel fit over this column? Or is the diameter in those locations identical? Ken
