Cadillac steering wheel swap, what years swap?

Id love to put a diff wheel on my 68 caddy, like an earlier one. any early ones fit?

 

Yep.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150532877067&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

 

Looks nice, way wrong color for me.
maroon or black would be perfect.

 

I'll recoat it any color you'd like- no extra charge but takes 12 days.
Paul

 

Thanks for the offer, still too rich for me.

 

after alot of google image searches i think the 66 wheel looks good and suits the car.
I like the earlier ones, but i dont think it will look right in my 'modern' dash,

now if i can find a maroon one.

 

Two bills for a Hamber.

 

It isn't going to fit in a '68. The '68 has the tilt/tele column which has a way bigger hub behind the wheel and also the wheel integrates the tele lever, so you can't use that 62-65 wheel or even the '66 wheel unless you swap out the whole column. Splines might be the same but it's not like you can just bolt the early one on there and it'll look fine/work.

I have heard of a guy cutting his old wheel down until it was just the center hub with the splines in it, then drilling and tapping it out to bolt a Superior 500 style wheel to it, but again you have to deal with the big column diameter and the tele lever and I'm not sure what the best way to do that is.

 

There are several really good tech articles here on the HAMB about making a steeering wheel from scratch..... By the same token, shouldn't be too difficult to graft just about any wheel you want onto your existing hub.

 

You can get repair kits for your old wheel. Repair any cracks and re color it. I don't know if it would do what you want to do, but it is what I am probably going to do on mine unless I win the lottery.

 

mine is like new just ugly. late model ones look like 80s pontiac to me.

 

Damn thats not what i wanted to hear

 

I have a '68 with that same wheel in it, I'm sure it was very modern at the time but it's ugly now. The people responding above are not familiar with the columns that our '68's have. Cutting up an old '68 style wheel to basically make a Grant style adapter is the only way I've ever heard of anyone successfully swapping out this steering wheel.

That's why all of those 80's and 90's style streetrods that used these columns always still have the old Cadillac steering wheels on them.

 

thanks for the input. Cutting up a wheel dont sound fun.

 

If you had a junk wheel to play with it wouldn't be hard. Just smash all the old plastic off and cut the spokes off, so you just have a flat plate with the splined hole in the center. Then drill and tap the flat plate part in the pattern of a Grant or Superior 500 style steering wheel, and bolt one of those on, with a horn button cap.

I wouldn't cut up your nice original one in case you ever want to swap it back, but if you had a junk one I don't think it'd be that hard. The Tele lever would be another thing to deal with but I'm sure it could be made to work.

 

hmm... i might try that if i ever find a junk wheel