[DeTomaso] steering wheel wanted

[David Skinner]

Tell Larry Finch I'm lookin' to buy his setup.  And if anyone else out there knows of one let me know.  It makes me sad all those great wheels got tossed.  What a shame.

thanks, david


________________________________
 From: "MikeLDrew at aol.com" <MikeLDrew at aol.com>
To: skinnerdskinner at yahoo.com; detomaso at poca.com 
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] steering wheel wanted
 


In a message dated 3/12/13 11 35 18, skinnerdskinner at yahoo.com writes:



Ok, one more question.  One more for today that is.  Does anyone know where I can get that super hard to find steering wheel that only seems to show up in dealer photos of the early pushbutton 71's?  Its got one band of brushed steel across the middle and the Ghia emblem in the center.  I'm guessing they're rare so I'm starting my search here.  I'm fairly certain everyone knows which one I mean but I've got a small picture attached just in case. 
>

>>>The forum software strips away all attachments, so nobody can get infected with a virus.   But I know exactly the wheel you're talking about.

They are very, VERY rare.   In fact the early cars all came into the USA wearing that wheel, and they were summarily removed and replaced with a cheap Capri wheel by Ford, apparently due to crash standards or some other such nonsense?   Bev Hall told me a year ago or so, that Bill Stroppe had a pile of hundreds (HUNDREDS) of those wheels in his facility for years, and nobody wanted them.   The Halls took a handful for themselves, and all the rest eventually went to the dump!

Now they are worth a ton of money.   Getting the wheel is only the start--you also need to get an appropriate hub, and a wheel center.   Larry Finch pieced together just such a setup recently, and offered it for sale.   I don't know if he sold it or not?

I know many years ago, Hall had just a wheel for sale for $1500, but today, they won't sell one to you--the one they have they are keeping.

The wheel was used on some other period Italian cars--the one that I know of is the very rare Lancia Fulvia 1.6 HF "Fanalone", but good luck finding one of THOSE to part out!

Here's a photo:

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Lancia_Fulvia_16HF_interior_EX.jpg

Mike