GTO Steering Wheel Hub Fabrication, Who wants in?!!
#81
I'm sorry to say RX666 has passed away according to another forum that i frequent. He went by blacklist on several forums, and passed away last month. I don't know the details, but i followed his build of his car on the site.
#89
Rip man. I find his gto to be one of the nicest I've seen to date.
Yes, please do. I'd be very interested in buying one. Also does anyone know the brand wheel that blacklist was using. I love that one. It looks very oem.
Yes, please do. I'd be very interested in buying one. Also does anyone know the brand wheel that blacklist was using. I love that one. It looks very oem.
#91
Hey guys. As someone who has followed this thread and subsequently looked into this - let me give you my feedback.
First of all - thanks to the gentleman who started this and has since passed. Always sad to hear of a fellow car guy passing. A lot of good information shared.
In fitting an '08 Vette column to an older musclecar - I ran into similar (read: "identical") issues. Nobody makes an aftermarket adaptor (or one that I liked anyway) for that column - to adapt an aftermarket wheel. I don't need the airbag and don't care - it's a 60's musclecar anyway. The spline count and arrangement is different to any previous year Vette or other, newer GM for that matter.
So I came across this thread. Seeing the hub production had stalled-out, I followed along, made contacts and ended up going to visit with the same engineering company in Huntington Bch, CA. In a nutshell - it costs a lot of money to produce these with the correct spline count etc etc. The only way to get that cost down was to produce more than one and sell the extra pcs. I was not willing to do any of that since I think there's even LESS people doing what I've done vs the number of you working with the GTO. So your mileage may vary but here's what I did. I share this for information purposes only - you follow or do what you do at your own risk, don't try this yourself at home, no animals were harmed in making this hub adaptor blah blah blah....
I looked around and found that NRG makes some of the nicest, more common hub adaptors and accessories - mostly for tuner cars and the like. Plus they are local and readily available and for a good price. I worked with them to purchase an adaptor that would give me the most chance of success (smallest hole already splined). I then took a trashed Vette steering wheel that fit the end of my column and litterally CUT the steel insert from the center of the otherwise aluminum-cast wheel structure. I then had a local engineering firm clean-up the steel insert and bore out the center of the NRG hub to match. They then press-fit one into the other. I also had them create and weld a flange onto the steel piece and add some hardware as a backup to the press-fit. The piece turned out perfect!
The big advantage going with NRG is that once I was able to use one of their products - I could use any of their accessories. So instead of just using a spacer part#, I used a quick-release part#. Very trick and the whole thing took just a few days to complete (part time).
Since I don't know the specifics on the GTO wheel or how it is constructed or sizes/dimensions, nor am I anyone qualified, I cannot help specifically but I thought this might give a few of you an idea that you could run with and work with some smart, local engineering types to make work for you.
I hope that helps someone.
G.
First of all - thanks to the gentleman who started this and has since passed. Always sad to hear of a fellow car guy passing. A lot of good information shared.
In fitting an '08 Vette column to an older musclecar - I ran into similar (read: "identical") issues. Nobody makes an aftermarket adaptor (or one that I liked anyway) for that column - to adapt an aftermarket wheel. I don't need the airbag and don't care - it's a 60's musclecar anyway. The spline count and arrangement is different to any previous year Vette or other, newer GM for that matter.
So I came across this thread. Seeing the hub production had stalled-out, I followed along, made contacts and ended up going to visit with the same engineering company in Huntington Bch, CA. In a nutshell - it costs a lot of money to produce these with the correct spline count etc etc. The only way to get that cost down was to produce more than one and sell the extra pcs. I was not willing to do any of that since I think there's even LESS people doing what I've done vs the number of you working with the GTO. So your mileage may vary but here's what I did. I share this for information purposes only - you follow or do what you do at your own risk, don't try this yourself at home, no animals were harmed in making this hub adaptor blah blah blah....
I looked around and found that NRG makes some of the nicest, more common hub adaptors and accessories - mostly for tuner cars and the like. Plus they are local and readily available and for a good price. I worked with them to purchase an adaptor that would give me the most chance of success (smallest hole already splined). I then took a trashed Vette steering wheel that fit the end of my column and litterally CUT the steel insert from the center of the otherwise aluminum-cast wheel structure. I then had a local engineering firm clean-up the steel insert and bore out the center of the NRG hub to match. They then press-fit one into the other. I also had them create and weld a flange onto the steel piece and add some hardware as a backup to the press-fit. The piece turned out perfect!
The big advantage going with NRG is that once I was able to use one of their products - I could use any of their accessories. So instead of just using a spacer part#, I used a quick-release part#. Very trick and the whole thing took just a few days to complete (part time).
Since I don't know the specifics on the GTO wheel or how it is constructed or sizes/dimensions, nor am I anyone qualified, I cannot help specifically but I thought this might give a few of you an idea that you could run with and work with some smart, local engineering types to make work for you.
I hope that helps someone.
G.
Last edited by Gandalf; 01-31-2012 at 12:47 PM.
#92
Yea I was talking to NRG about adapters for GTOs they dont have any plans to do it. G-force said he practically adapter designed but did not put it in to production yet. Who knows when :-P right now I am putting TVS on my car but when I will be done with all this I think I will start looking more in to adapter or quick release for our cars.
#95
#96