Eric,
I think your car has the same style covers as the '74 did. If so, I
have a pair of the plastic covers that I would be happy to part with for
a small fee. If you are interested, drop me your address and make an
offer.
Joe
Craig Smith wrote:
>
> My suggestion is go ahead and drill out the screw that is in there now.
> You are going to do some damage to the cover since this guy "fixed" it,
> after you get it off I would suggest using some fiberglass resin to remold
> the area. I used a standard fiberglass resin bought at Home Depot to do a
> similar job and then sanded and painted the part.
>
> Good Luck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric A. Yates [mailto:eyates@enteract.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 3:49 PM
> To: spitfires@autox.team.net
> Subject: Steering column cover question
>
> Hello all,
>
> My '78 Spitfire has a problem with her plastic steering column covers (the
> two pieces that surround the column behind the steering wheel).
>
> I tried to take this cover off the other day and discovered that the two
> screws that hold the halves together were mismatched. One of them is
> correct, the other is a wrong screw that someone had simply forced into
> place, stripping the hell out of the plastic threads in the top piece I'm
> sure. The wrong screw will not come out, and as you know, it is not
> something I can grab with pliers or anything because it is so deeply
> recessed in the bottom half of the cover.
>
> I have no immediate need to remove the covers, so this is not an urgent
> problem. (Before I had wanted to take them off to give myself more room to
> remove my dash and guages, but I worked around it.) But, when the time
> comes, how the heck am I going to get these cover halves separated without
> ruining them?
>
> And as a follow-up question, why in the world would someone knowingly take
> the wrong screw and be so damn lazy as to simply force it into place,
> probably destroying a larger piece of the car in doing so? I have found
> little surprises like this all over my beloved Spitfire. I can understand
> getting frustrated and having difficulty locating all the little parts to
> do a job right, but I can't fathom simply wrecking a part of a car for no
> reason. It is not as though a slightly different screw with the correct
> threads could not have been found, even if this were done 20 years ago. The
> screw that was used is clearly just the wrong damn thing, something that
> was lying around the shop so the guy just drove the sucker in there.
> Someone please help me understand what could make someone commit such
> crimes against an innocent lbc! :)
>
> Eric.
>
> -----
> Eric Yates
> eyates@enteract.com
> 1978 Spitfire 1500 FM 71614 U
> Chicago, IL USA
--
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
-- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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