DIY Momo Hub adapter via 91 airbag wheel?

[Massive Lee]

Someone, don't remember who, had made brake carrier brackets out of marine grade plywood and was talking about doing some R&D for marine grade plywood steering wheel adapters in the near future. Maybe they will chime in on how that is coming along...

Ah, ah. That was Blunt (I think) and he was making fun of somebody's R&D. I received the same pictures two years ago when we were exchanging thoughts about a rear kit for 2002.

Lee

[Scotaku]

I seem to remember some numbnuts posting plywood seat/slider adapters.

Wood and cars only works if they're British or carrying surfboards with Beach Boys tunes on the radio.

As for the wheel... just spend the money.

[atomic]

Ah, ah. That was Blunt (I think) and he was making fun of somebody's R&D. I received the same pictures two years ago when we were exchanging thoughts about a rear kit for 2002.

Lee

I was being sarcastic in hopes that someone would carry on with it...


;)

[88e30is]

I do believe cardboard would work as well. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[robspeed325i]

air bagged steering wheels already have momo bolt pattern on it's hub, and steering wheel itself is pinned in. All you have to do is drill and tap those 6 holes.


I guess I'll do a DIY sometime this week, will have to find my GF's airbagged wheel.

im gonna pull the airbag tomorrow evening (if my brother in law brings over his torx set as promised) and take a look. any luck finding the GF wheel?

[robspeed325i]

alright i pulled the airbag, and this is definitely doable. the hub itself is an aluminum casting and the wheel is a stamped steel piece, or pieces really, that is pinned to the hub with small ... pins. about 6-7mm i think. There is NO "momo" hole pattern there already, however. I need to do this on some other day besides a work night when i have more time to do the cutting etc. i also need to investigate further where the new bolts will sink into the existing hub. i can cut the heads off the pins themselves, leaving only the hub, but there are voids in it where i might not be able to put in a bolt or two (the "momo" bolts), which id like to avoid. so what i might do is leave the existing facing material which is actually part of the wheel pinned to the hub, and cut the wheel part off via an angle grinder. this would leave me something to put a nut behind at least, and bolt to that material.

or if i wanted to keep the option of reversing all this if i ever sell this or need to put the airbag wheel back together and back in the car, i might just grind off the pin heads, which could easily be drilled out and replaced with bolts, and work with the bare hub itself.

after having pulled the airbag, this is so obviously doable and i have to laff at all the naysayers who obviously have ZERO idea what they are talking about. so, :giggle::finger::rofl:

[IRON-E]

Pix of the project or BAN! :hitler:

[robspeed325i]

Pix of the project or BAN! :hitler:

oh yah, pics and instructions to follow! ;)

[robspeed325i]

DONE!

VERY simple operation to simply cut the old wheel loose from the hub, drill new holes in hub, and run some new bolts into the holes. rather than tap the holes i just put nuts on the back (nylocks with washers). I also used some larger nuts between the wheel and hub as spacers so that the horn button wouldnt bottom out against the hub. All told, it took about 2 hours including running to the hardware store for bolts. 2hours + about $9 for bolts, washers and nuts. Compared to a $70 ebay adapter, that comes out to about $30 an hour i just paid myself to do this, which is way more than i make at my day job/s currently.

I took pics but am too lazy to post em right now. This retains the stock steering lock and I didnt have to mess with the airbag "pin" in the column or anything else attached to the car. I may wrap the bare hub with some kind of fabric tape to cover the front of it, and the stock padded cover will conceal the outside of the hub (once i put it back... too freegin hot out there to continue to mess with it now).

One last thing, i was only able to put five of the six bolts into the hub, due to one void area below the bottom-most bolt. This is fixable by bridging the void on the back of the hub with a heavy piece of scrap metal, and then running the bolt through that. Right now im not worried about it.


What remains of the stock wheel is destined for use in the other e30 in the family...

[robspeed325i]

crappy cell phone pic!



yea my car is filthy and it was 98 in the shade today while i was doing this so i didnt bother finishing the horn wiring or making things pretty. wheel is solidly mounted and i have room for my knees now... strange that a much-smaller car (my old 69 02) had so much more room in it...

[e30this]

Wow thats actually pretty cool..

[maximumangle]

DIY FTW!!!!!!!!!

one of the cleanest E30's ive seen yet. lol

mad props to the son for building his own!

DONE!

[robspeed325i]

DIY FTW!!!!!!!!!

one of the cleanest E30's ive seen yet. lol

mad props to the son for building his own!

heh... i actually "built" that one,,, kinda long story but i had forgotten he was supposed to make a box racer for his "Kindy 500" end-of-school-year box race until the morning of the race. i put him on the bus and had about two hours to come up with something for him. i just went with what was familiar and painted up a box i had set aside a few weeks back (thank god i had at least done that much!) he came in second in his heat (bad start otherwise he would have taken it...

here is the "parade lap" in which he cant resist opening it up a bit ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCO2_Xv35o

and a pic gallery:

http://www.jennaishealed.org/5-19-boatmobile-races/

;)