[abadbowtie]

I am helping build a outlaw performance pro street 41 willy's and have a little bit of problems on placing the column throught the floor and still having room for a brake pedal and gas pedal. I would like to see some pictures of how anybody else has done these cars. Please send them to [email protected]
or post them on here.

 

[powerrodsmike]

Welcome to the board. :welcome: Emailing pics defeats the purpose of the board. So we post them here for everyone to share.

I did this setup in a 33 pickup and freed up alot of floor space It has an added benefit of being a much more comfortable angle for the steering wheel to be on.

The double u jounts are available from Borgeson as well as Flaming river. The stub column is one that I cut down , but they are now available from Ididit.

I made all the bracketry and the brake pedal. It isn't beautiful, but it is very strong. The MC is firewall mounted.

There is also a company called steer clear that makes an offset drive that is very spiffy. It can let you use a stubby column but you don't have to use double U joints. Costs alot too.

Link .... http://www.wizardsteerclear.com/index.html

Hope this helps,

mikey
BTW, I did not do the welds on the firewall. That guy no longer works for me. :spank: They have been fixed.

 

[pasadenahotrod]

Are you using hanging pedals or through the floor pedals?
Most early cars have the front portion of the floor tilted up to the firewall (that known as toeboards). The floor pedals came up through a hole in the toeboard with plenty of clearance around steering column.
I have noticed that many glass body manufacturers make their bodies with a flat firewall dropping down to meet a flat floorboard at pretty much a 90 degree angle. Why they do this I have no clue, maybe it is to make the manufacturing process easier. BUT, one thing it does do is eliminate the toeboards which were engineered all those years ago(and continued today) to place their feet at a natural and non-tiring angel while riding/driving. This design change also causes this clearance problem for new builders not that familiar with car construction. Without the angled front of the floorpan, a new builder will tend to think the steering column should exit the body farther down than it should which causes the pedal clearance problem. Sometimes it is solved by someone pointing out the lack of toeboards, sometimes it is solved by bending up some really weird looking pedals.
Does your body have toeboards?? And why not?

 

[powerrodsmike]

Putting any kind of v8 in a 41 willys makes finding a place for a steering column and pedals a chore. The trans tunnel gets alot bigger than stock, while the firewall gets moved back a bunch.
You wind up putting the column through the firewall at a point much lower than stock. At the fiberglass body manufacturer where I worked for 13 years, the firewall in our 34 coupe was recessed 4" and the toeboards were retained. The stock pedals were able to be used. The columns still needed to be angled down more to clear larger engines than stock. (41 willys came with a 4 cylinder)
The willys is already a small car, the rear of the front wheelwells intrude into the passenger compartment as well. There just is not alot of room for pedals .Toe kicks are nice for comfort, but in the case of a 41 willys, they don't dictate the position of the column.

Swinging pedals can help if you can stand seeing the MC on the firewall. Raising the column in the 2 ways that I described will help no matter where you put your pedals.

Just not having a column there to get in the way of your foot is a huge help. I have driven cars with the pedal on the left side of the column and had to use 2 feet to drive. It was uncomfortable and IMO unsafe.

Later,
Mikey