How to Paint Steering Column

[treverd]

As you can see the steering column has some decent rust on it.

Question #1: What's the best way to get this painted? Try to keep it in place and tape off the rest of the interior? Or Remove the column entirely (What would this entail)?

Question #2: The Paint color for the truck was Bahama Blue, for some reason the column appears to be a darker blue. Is this truly the case?

Thank guys,
Trever T

[sargentrs]

Easiest thing to do is remove the column entirely. Not difficult to do, especially since you have a floor shift. Remove two nuts at the rag joint. Remove clamp from column housing to firewall bracket in the engine bay. Remove firewall bracket in engine bay. Remove screws/bolts from the firewall plate inside the cabin. Remove 2 bolts under the dash. Unplug wiring harness and NSS if equipped. Angle down and to the side and lift it out. Little bit of a pain since you have a nice firewall pad and rubber mat but you can get under the pad with a 1/4" drive ratchet and socket.

Not uncommon for columns to be different colors than the rest of the truck but that's normally a drastic difference, like a black column in a blue truck, not so much a shade or two. Original floor shift truck?

[48prerunner]

My 72 custom cab has that same color column in it, The truck was totally original when i bought it from a farmer in 1980. Exterior was a very light blue. Is cool that you have the rare dash extension. I took my column out to paint it but I was also converting from 3 speed column to 5 speed floor shift.

[treverd]

Sargentrs: Thank you for that explanation. That is definitely the route we will go; seems like a somewhat straight forward removal.
Yes, original floor shift truck (we got lucky, in my mind). Took a little bit to get used to the **** pattern. 1st gear almost puts knuckles into the dash.

48prerunner: Thank for confirming that the column is a darker shade blue. I appreciate the complement on the dash extension.......can you explain what this is? I am not familiar.

Thanks again guys,
Trever T

[Canonman67]

The dash extension is the faux woodgrain piece under the dash on the passenger side. I've never seen one before and didn't even know they existed. Pretty cool and rare option.

[flintsf250]

Hey Everyone,

Any thoughts on rattle can options for steering column paint? Also would to paint a 67-70 style steering wheel. Off white or Wimbledon white.

[DuckRyder]

Take the column out, it isn't difficult to do.

The steering column is painted upholstery color. One of the paint chip cards has the information for paint on it.

The heater modesty panel is a Ranger XLT feature, they are very hard to find in good condition. I think the Ranger XLT buyers were most likely to have AC added and the modesty panel got removed.

[Ranchero50]

Also, be sure to check the paint carefully. I'm pretty sure mine had some very fine metal flake in it. I changed mine to black with fine metal flake since it's easier to find nice black wheels. I also changed the metal door panels and dash to match since the seat and those other parts were the same color from the factory.

For paint I used Dupli-color's exterior paint and put a ton of thin coats since it sprays so thin. After two years, the wheel paint is thinning but otherwise it still looks pretty good.

[Bullitt74]

National Parts Depot has a fairly extensive list of interior paints in their catalogue, with an SEM product for softer trim, and I believe a lacquer option for harder surfaces. Many of these are metallic, and are listed for Ford vehicles in general (vs. specific color options for the bumpside trucks).

Steve.