is there a inexpensive way to add the safety of a collapsible steering column to my 65. Most of the aftermarket items ive seen are all tilt but dont talk about it being collapsible in a collision.
You'll need to also change the steering box on a 65 to add a collapseable column. The steering shaft is a single,solid piece of steel from inside the box to the wheel. Either that or you'd have to cut the shaft above the box and weld some sort of connection to splice it to a separate column. The solid shaft columns lasted until mid 67, then went to the two piece column/shaft.
Anyone know how the parts interchange is for the early '65-'67 steering box - to- '68 steering box swap (particularly for the 1st generation cars)? I think the sector shaft is different; what other than the correct Pitman arm is needed to link a '68 steering box to the rest of a '65 V8 car's steering linkage?
I've been thinking of going that route with my '65, rather than a rack n' pinion.
I swapped out my early 67 column for a 68 one, close to a bolt-in but not quite since I wanted to keep the 67 (larger) bell for the steering wheel. If you are using the 68 steering wheel (yuck) then it is a bolt-in.
I can't asnwer for sure if a 68 gearbox would bolt right in or not, but the early 67 is the same as the 65-66 and I doubt FoMoCo changed them dramatically mid-year (other than the two peice shaft). I didn't have to deal with the box at all since I'm using a TCP R&P, but I'll bet it would still bolt-in.