Automobile safety was a learning curve during the ’60s, much as it still is today. One of the first safety features to come down the pike after seatbelts and padded dashboards was the collapsible steering wheel and column for ’68-and-later Fords. If you’re at all familiar with pre-’68 Fords, you know they had a solid steering-wheel shaft all the way down to the steering gear. In a crash, it doesn’t give.
Thankfully, it’s possible to retrofit a used ’68-’69 Ford/Mercury collapsible steering column into a pre-’68 Mustang, Cougar, Falcon, Fairlane, or Comet. There are two ways to do it. If original appearance is important, you can modify the column to work with the pre-’68 top collar that houses the turn-signal switch. If originality doesn’t matter, you can transplant the entire ’68-’69 column into an older Ford.
The collapsible steering column consists of a collapsible steering wheel, a steering shaft, an inner tube, and a column. Three-quarters of the way down the column there is a plastic-wrapped, perforated section that collapses in a collision when the driver’s body contacts the steering wheel. The column, inner tube, and steering shaft collapse, taking the impact instead of the driver. The steering differs because there isn’t the solid shaft used from ’67 and earlier, with a rag-joint coupling the steering shaft with the steering gear.
To convert to a collapsible steering column, you will need a short-shaft steering gear, which we obtained new from Flaming River Industries. Memory Lane Auto Salvage in Sun Valley, California, outfitted us with a used ’68 Mustang collapsible steering column for our ’67 Mustang.