Moving forward to the dash bar and steering, I stuck the Honda steering column in the car to get an idea of how it's going to fit and mount. It's stripped down to just the steel underpinnings, and is being used to capitalize on Honda's height adjustment mechanism, which I always liked.
It became painfully obvious, really quickly, that the 13.5" steering wheel just wasn't going to work. In fact, I don't even think a 12" wheel would fit, so I am not going to waste my time making a mock-up, or money buying one. I did some parts shuffling, and swapped the 13.5" wheel into the Model E, and it's little 10" wheel to Schism. The funny thing is I purchased the 10" for just this reason - in the initial mock-ups of that car I knew I couldn't fit anything larger. Now, Model E has grown, and Schism has shrunk and the wheels needed to be swapped. That was a purposed thing. I have purposely been removing as much of "me" from the Model E as possible, over the last year, and that 10" wheel was 100%
Todd.
With that wheel, I am also reclaiming my chunk of Maple burl, and resuming the process of making that steering wheel. It's actually going to be even better on Schism, because I am not trying to incorporate hidden control buttons in it. I have a perfect little piece of 6061 bar stock to carve a hub, will machine spokes on the ShopBot, and get Curt to TIG it all together for me. The hub is going to be a ball and stem to match the shifter, e-brake handle, and planned switch knobs.
I just have to come up with a plan to make the Maple burl work with the Ebony Black & White accents I have. I'm thinking Ebony B&W inlays in the burled rim, and then maybe some burl inlays in the Ebony pieces that will follow, but I'm not set on anything yet.
More on the rim and hub coming. The CAD madness is about to happen, and I will resume machining the burl rim soon, but the actual hub, spokes, and weld-up, may be a little further down the road. I am mainly trying to lay the ground work, so I can set the steering column accordingly. I also want the rim to be cut and settled long before the rest of the wheel is finalized and cut, so I can make any necessary adjustments to suit how it chooses to end up.
An update on that process, for this site: the block is machined a little and allowed to settle. The newly exposed wood gets time to acclimate itself to the environment, re-balancing the moisture content. If it's done correctly, it won't fracture into a bunch of worthless scrap wood. When the final machining has been completed, the rim will be allowed to sit for a while, in a fixture, but could actually change shape a bit. That's fine with me, because it would add to the vintage "flavor". The hub will be designed, machined, and fabricated to match the rim. Normally, over time, the rim would change shape and the support structure would prevent it from moving freely, causing the large cracks and chunking you see a lot with antique wheels.
The ten-inch wheel is an absolute necessity to fit in Schism's impossibly restricted interior. I was able to contort my way in again and it feels perfect. It kind of completes the ridiculous feel of the car, from the driver's seat, and should be quite an experience with 1-1/2 turns lock to lock - can you say overgrown kart?!
