For some random reason, after finishing the engine, or at least as far as I could go anyway, I then decided to look at semi final fitting the column. Obviously everything needs to come off the chassis when I paint it, but the front ally work did not have any holes in it for the column to go through. So I attached the ally with a couple of cliquos (amazingly useful things), and drilled through the lower bush chassis mounts to mark the ally.
Next was a bit of a faf as I couldn’t get the snips in, after of course drilling the holes in a manner to use the snips, and so I ended up filing the shape…
So after about 30 mins, not too bad really I had the lower bush mounted. Well you have to split these things up into small bite size successes!
I had previously thought that the upper bush didn’t need any trimming but I had obviously mis-calculated, as it clearly did!
I was somewhat concerned about the next bit, the hole through which the column protruded the ally. I just saw it as an opportunity to make a complete cods of the panel if i got it in the wrong place. Hence I stared at it for about an hour making excuses before actually doing anything! Eventually I plucked up the courage to make a hole, after much measuring and remeasuring, and luckily it seemed about right. It was then a case of fitting, checking, removing, filing and refitting the column until it all cleared the slot. I have to say I was reasonably pleased with the way it turned out.
Having started on the column, I thought I would go the whole hog and think about wiring up the limo for the steering wheel. Of course, it was not very easy to get the wires through the small hole I had in the column, but in the end I shut my eyes and just pulled a bit harder… It then seemed to pop through quite nicely and thankfully all the wires were intact 
Tags: Ally Panels, Wiring
