ydeardorff
New member
OK,
I got to a stopping point tonight, and thought I had amassed enough photos I could at least start a topic on this.
OK,...
Using 1/8" steel plate, and some steel tubing (1/8" or greater walled), and a 1/2" steel washer bought at the local hard ware store, I now had all my pieces necessary to complete my mini cooper steering column adapter for the new MOMO millennium styled steering wheel.
This adapter will be a stepped set of rings, with plates in between each larger set of pieces of pipe.
NOTE: Get the wheel distance set first. You'll need to ensure your wheel is far enough away to clear your switch stalks, but not too far back either, find that sweet spot, where when driving you can drive effortlessly, without hitting you knuckles or finger on the switch stalks, but when you need to hit the turn signals, they are still right at your finger tips.
I started by measuring out the diameter necessary for the 6 attaching screws on the steering wheel itself. add about another 3/8" or more to leave room for the nuts that will be welded on later.
The inside is easy just trace it out. In this case masking tape is your friend.
I then marked out the rings I need to cut out of the 1/8" steel sheet chunks I have.
Now that I have the metal and the ring size figured out. I started by drilling lots of holes, in essence tracing the lines out with the drill bit. Now I would have used a cutting torch, or cutting wheel for this normally, but lacking either, I used what I had. This is an effective way to do this, just not time wise.
I used a dremel and a cut off wheel (yes it takes a lot of them) but again it works if you don't have all the tools you need for this task. (The dremel is one of the best tools I have ever had, other than my DR field and brush mower)
I cut out the rings
Rinsed and repeated as necessary
Now that the rings are cut out, They need to get sanded down, and cleaned up.
Time to get the 1/2" washer and 1" pipe together, and get this thing going
Note:
All of the galvanizing must be removed before welding happens. The zinc coating is poisonous when it burns, so sanding it off was a must.
Here you can see the welder was turned way down for welding car body sheet metal, and these welds are cold, and not penetrating. After I got the welder adjusted properly, the welds were ground down and redone.
Now a nice cleanly joined steel washer and steel pipe
You can see the mini cooper main steering attaching bolt. Its gonna need some sanding to get it to cleanly fit inside the pipe.
The center of the mini cooper steering wheel that has been cut out and saved for this project. This is necessary to retain the splined center section, and the original bolt. Notice the three Y oriented screw holes. The will be used as part of the adapter assembly. The main adapter plate will be using these holes and their surrounding aluminum to apply the torque from the steering wheel. But since the main bolt will be holding the majority of the torque, these will only aid, as a back up preventing the two piece from spinning on each other. Each of the screw mounts are 3/8" O.D. so that's plenty of metal to firmly hold this steering wheel in place.
Here's a shot of the first section of the pipe before it is trimmed down to fit under the main plate
Using cardboard I pressed down very hard to imprint the screw holes into the card board.
I then allowed for enough metal between the edge of the drilled hole, and the edge of the plate. This helps prevent any tear through under extreme circumstances. I then marked the holes with a sharpie and trimmed out the cardboard to the shape I wanted.
Here, now that its trimmed and the holes are now cut out, you can kinda see how it will look.
And now trace the shape I made onto the next piece of sheet metal, and its back to the drill press.
I would recommend using a steel cutting blade on what you might use.
This was a wood blade, and it didn't last long. But anyway, I still got everything cut out.
Id recommend using a band saw if you have one.
Now that the main adapter plate is now cut out. I need to get it sanded, and cut out the center for the first 1 inch pipe to fit through. That first first pipe will be cut off flush. welded, and the next larger size pipe will be welded on.
Ive been doing this kind of work every day for almost 20 years now, so if I have skipped a step or you might want more clarification please just let me know, Id be happy to help clear it up for you. I am getting to my over the hill mark next year after all, I might have missed a step.
Perfection on this isn't necessary at these steps. everything so far you've seen will be completely hidden from view once completed. So don't worry if things aren't even. The only things that are important is, everything must be perfectly centered, in this, and the distance from the hub must be right. *thumbs up*
And yes the bottom hole is off center. The drill bit walked off the edge. It no problem. It will get filed back into position when its done.
More to come!.....
I got to a stopping point tonight, and thought I had amassed enough photos I could at least start a topic on this.
OK,...
Using 1/8" steel plate, and some steel tubing (1/8" or greater walled), and a 1/2" steel washer bought at the local hard ware store, I now had all my pieces necessary to complete my mini cooper steering column adapter for the new MOMO millennium styled steering wheel.
This adapter will be a stepped set of rings, with plates in between each larger set of pieces of pipe.
NOTE: Get the wheel distance set first. You'll need to ensure your wheel is far enough away to clear your switch stalks, but not too far back either, find that sweet spot, where when driving you can drive effortlessly, without hitting you knuckles or finger on the switch stalks, but when you need to hit the turn signals, they are still right at your finger tips.
I started by measuring out the diameter necessary for the 6 attaching screws on the steering wheel itself. add about another 3/8" or more to leave room for the nuts that will be welded on later.
The inside is easy just trace it out. In this case masking tape is your friend.
I then marked out the rings I need to cut out of the 1/8" steel sheet chunks I have.
Now that I have the metal and the ring size figured out. I started by drilling lots of holes, in essence tracing the lines out with the drill bit. Now I would have used a cutting torch, or cutting wheel for this normally, but lacking either, I used what I had. This is an effective way to do this, just not time wise.
I used a dremel and a cut off wheel (yes it takes a lot of them) but again it works if you don't have all the tools you need for this task. (The dremel is one of the best tools I have ever had, other than my DR field and brush mower)
I cut out the rings
Rinsed and repeated as necessary
Now that the rings are cut out, They need to get sanded down, and cleaned up.
Time to get the 1/2" washer and 1" pipe together, and get this thing going
Note:
All of the galvanizing must be removed before welding happens. The zinc coating is poisonous when it burns, so sanding it off was a must.
Here you can see the welder was turned way down for welding car body sheet metal, and these welds are cold, and not penetrating. After I got the welder adjusted properly, the welds were ground down and redone.
Now a nice cleanly joined steel washer and steel pipe
You can see the mini cooper main steering attaching bolt. Its gonna need some sanding to get it to cleanly fit inside the pipe.
The center of the mini cooper steering wheel that has been cut out and saved for this project. This is necessary to retain the splined center section, and the original bolt. Notice the three Y oriented screw holes. The will be used as part of the adapter assembly. The main adapter plate will be using these holes and their surrounding aluminum to apply the torque from the steering wheel. But since the main bolt will be holding the majority of the torque, these will only aid, as a back up preventing the two piece from spinning on each other. Each of the screw mounts are 3/8" O.D. so that's plenty of metal to firmly hold this steering wheel in place.
Here's a shot of the first section of the pipe before it is trimmed down to fit under the main plate
Using cardboard I pressed down very hard to imprint the screw holes into the card board.
I then allowed for enough metal between the edge of the drilled hole, and the edge of the plate. This helps prevent any tear through under extreme circumstances. I then marked the holes with a sharpie and trimmed out the cardboard to the shape I wanted.
Here, now that its trimmed and the holes are now cut out, you can kinda see how it will look.
And now trace the shape I made onto the next piece of sheet metal, and its back to the drill press.
I would recommend using a steel cutting blade on what you might use.
This was a wood blade, and it didn't last long. But anyway, I still got everything cut out.
Id recommend using a band saw if you have one.
Now that the main adapter plate is now cut out. I need to get it sanded, and cut out the center for the first 1 inch pipe to fit through. That first first pipe will be cut off flush. welded, and the next larger size pipe will be welded on.
Ive been doing this kind of work every day for almost 20 years now, so if I have skipped a step or you might want more clarification please just let me know, Id be happy to help clear it up for you. I am getting to my over the hill mark next year after all, I might have missed a step.
Perfection on this isn't necessary at these steps. everything so far you've seen will be completely hidden from view once completed. So don't worry if things aren't even. The only things that are important is, everything must be perfectly centered, in this, and the distance from the hub must be right. *thumbs up*
And yes the bottom hole is off center. The drill bit walked off the edge. It no problem. It will get filed back into position when its done.
More to come!.....
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