Smaller Steering Wheel

jfriese

Active Member
There is an owner out here who can barely drive his new Amphicar. He's about 6' 4" tall and a lot of that height is between his knees and his ankles so he wants me to find a smaller diameter steering wheel for his car that hopefully has somewhat the same character as the original but is smaller to give his knees more room. I know nothing about these things and am asking the group for any ideas. Of course the splines have to match up and I suppose he'd be willing to give up the horn button. I already know his seat slides are working fine and he has all the leg room that a normal late Amphicar has. Anybody have any suggestions.

John Friese
67 White
67 Red
 

chasgould

New Member
Cut the seat frame down to a shorter height!
Chas

On Jul 5, 2010, at 11:22 PM, jfriese wrote:


> There is an owner out here who can barely drive his new Amphicar.
> He's about 6' 4" tall and a lot of that height is between his knees
> and his ankles so he wants me to find a smaller diameter steering
> wheel for his car that hopefully has somewhat the same character as
> the original but is smaller to give his knees more room. I know
> nothing about these things and am asking the group for any ideas. Of
> course the splines have to match up and I suppose he'd be willing to
> give up the horn button. I already know his seat slides are working
> fine and he has all the leg room that a normal late Amphicar has.
> Anybody have any suggestions.
>
> John Friese
> 67 White
> 67 Red
>
>
 

Ed Price

Member
He might want to consider sacrificing legroom in the rear by mounting the
front seat slides a few inches further back. This will help both his long
legs and closeness to the original steering wheel. It will also guarantee
that only kids can ride in the rear.


Ed Price
IAOC Membership Registrar
El Cajon, CA USA
WB6WSN
1961 Amphicar 770
1987 MB 420SEL





_____

From: jfriese [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 8:22 PM
To: edprice@cox.net
Subject: [General Amphicar Discussion-t-20823] Smaller Steering Wheel


There is an owner out here who can barely drive his new Amphicar. He's about
6' 4" tall and a lot of that height is between his knees and his ankles so
he wants me to find a smaller diameter steering wheel for his car that
hopefully has somewhat the same character as the original but is smaller to
give his knees more room. I know nothing about these things and am asking
the group for any ideas. Of course the splines have to match up and I
suppose he'd be willing to give up the horn button. I already know his seat
slides are working fine and he has all the leg room that a normal late
Amphicar has. Anybody have any suggestions.

John Friese
67 White
67 Red
 

jfriese

Active Member
When he first received the car things were worse than now because it had an early body and the front seat mounting was about 2 inches further forward than in later cars. I had to weld angle bracket extensions to the frame rails and install new nutserts to get the seat back to where it should be. Someone had also used hex head bolts to mount the seat so the slides would jam before reaching the back of their travel. Even with both of these things fixed, it's still a tight fit for his long legs so he asked me for find a smaller wheel for the car. I'll check into Ted's advice because it seems the most practical way to go.

Thanks for the info.

John Friese
67 White
67 Red
 
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