While I wait and see if Danmas answers my PM for those who've fitted a Flaming River column can you tell me something about how best to attach it to the car both under the dash where the three lugs are and to the firewall. Presumably for the latter I need one of these products but which is best? I searched like here but haven't found a how to yet - I'm looking at a non-collapsible ie not tilt.

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

Barrie, I'm sure Dan will be along to help with info. In the meantime, have a look at his How it Was Done on BritishV8... http://www.britishv8.org/MG/DanMasters.htm. There are a couple of pics that show a hoop shaped bracket made to line up with at least 2 of the captive nuts on the OEM bracket. Here's one of the pics but there's at least one more too.

Thanks Rob - yes Dan has just sent me lots of links to study over the weekend

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

Dan linked his car's build with pictures that can be enlarged but I'm still at a bit of a loss and need info if anyone has it. In this topic it's confirmed that the OEM collapsible columns all used the same method of attachment to the cradle under the dashtop/scuttle - the three lugs. Obviously to attach a FR column I'll need to modify that cradle so I can use one/two of these but I'm wondering do I need one or two saddles - I think Dan only has one; that's all I can see in the pic but my eyes can deceive me.

Given I've come this far with alterations eg Fastcars FE & Bill's rear perhaps a fully integrated column too???????????

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

I believe that Flaming River racks for the MGB may well be made by the same South American company that makes the aftermarket ones that Moss sells. I had a conversation with someone at Flaming River a few months ago when I was looking for an alternative to the Moss one and he in passing confirmed that theirs too are made in South America.

Barrie,

Here are a couple more pics that may help. The column is mounted with two saddles that were homemade by Ted and Terry. Since there are only two UJs, no support is needed for the intermediate shaft, so no firewall reinforcement is needed. The bezel shown in engine bay was made by Ted & Terry, and has a rubber bushing to seal the firewall, with the shaft just passing through.

FIO, the racks used by Fast Cars is custom made for Fast Cars by a company that, I believe, is American.

Dan is there a reason Ted & Terry kept the upper universal joint driver side of the firewall? Maybe the length of the column used?

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

No particular reason, it just worked out better that way.

Barrie - remember that Dan has the FastCars front end. It uses a shaft with U-joints at top and bottom so it's easy to allow for differences in the flaming River column length vs OEM simply by altering the steering shaft length. If you have the stock front end, the steering shaft is integrated with the steering rack so column length is more critical to ensure your steering wheel ends up where you want it. If necessary Flaming River offers custom length columns (although probably at a premium vs their standard lengths).

Thanks Dan. Rob I too have Fastcars FE.

I was just wondering if there was a particular reason for putting the UJ inside. I've already cut-to-length an intermediate shaft from the FCFE steering uni to the OEM top uni. If the FR column had to have the top uni inside the car I'd need a new intermediate shaft. My OEM column measures 29.25" so I suspect a 30" collapsible might be in order with perhaps a trimming on my intermediate shaft depending on the upper UJ I use. FR columns through say Summit are considerably cheaper than buying direct and that's attractive due to our importation duties so I'm looking for the time being at off-the-shelf rather than customised.

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

IMO, the u-joint is where it is because there isn't much room for it on the engine bay side.

That’s what I was trying to say

"the u-joint is where it is because there isn't much room for it on the engine bay side."

Interesting. On my '79 there's quite a bit of space for the OEM uni engine side - it has its own housing; mind you fitting the shaft in and under the headers is an exercise in itself. Guess I'll need to work out which FR uni I need and then its length. It's no biggie as I can always buy a new intermediate shaft long enough to go through the firewall and put the uni driver's side. I was just going to attach something like that below to the inside firewall.

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Convertible: CKD 11/66 first registered 8/5/67. Owned since 3/77. 90% original sheet metal. 18GB +40 balanced with almost all new internals. Peter Burgess big valve fast road head. Piper 285. Fidanza FW. Basil's followers and pushrods. TR7clutch. TT exhaust. ARP everywhere. 123 ign. Needham 4synchro c/r box.. Stock rebuilt/replaced suspension. Superpro bushes. New brakes all round including all pipes in SS flex. Interior redone. CAMS approved roll bar and side bars. Lots more. Hybrid of o/e and show/fast road car. Not for sale - it's my toy!

GT: UK car built/sold December '78. Stripped back to bare shell (with extensive bodywork to come). Powered by 'worked' Rover 5 litre V8 (ex TVR Chimera) with efi. T5 box. FC IFS. CCE rear attached to Salisbury axle with Quaife. And a whole lot more to yet to come. Stealth is the word.

What’s the total length of your column?