Ford Mustang Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ugly steering wheel

3K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  KiLLeR_WoMBaT 
#1 ·
Aways back when, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, sports cars had three-spoke steering wheels but now they have the big, ugly airbag in the center.

I like the thought of having the extra safety feature in my car but have never liked the way it made the wheel look. When I sold cars, a girl started at work whose forearms were all scuffed up and black and blue. Her air bag had deployed while driving down the road. I am not concerned about this happening on any modern cars and realize it was a *very* rare incident even in her case.

I told her "When you hear the steering wheel start playing the 'Pop Goes the Weasel' song, you gotta pull over!"

While driving my old POS to work in the mornings with it's first generation airbag, I occasionally think about it and will sip my coffee, a little off to one side. :) Imagine what it would feel like to have someone take a 200MPH baseball bat to the bottom of your coffee mug, as you drink out of it?!?! You'll get to find out what your teeth taste like, on the inside.

Clearly, a plain ole accident is far more likely than anything accidental involving an airbag but has anyone removed the modern steering wheel and replaced it with a plain jane one sans airbag?

Keep in mind I am not going to do this [wink wink] but I wonder if the whole steering column wasn't set up to only accept airbag equipped steering wheels.

If you race your car, do they allow you to have airbags? Seat belts are wonderful safety features and I have always worn mine, even on the shortest trips but I wonder why NASCAR doesn't use airbags? Heck, who gets in more accidents per day, than a race car driver?

I wouldn't mind so much, if I smacked into the wall at over a hundred and my whole car turned into marshmallow, coated with blaze orange safety warnings. [WHOOMPH]

Imagine that? The cleanup crew cleaning the s'mores off the track, following a "little altercation in turn four".

-David
"All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey stopped to pull up his sock..."
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Huh?

I am sure you are trying to make a point somewhere, but I am at a loss as to what it is. Are you saying you think the new Mustangs steering wheel is ugly? IMO, the new Mustangs steering wheel is beautiful. Ford did an excellent job reducing the size of the airbag. Compared to previous generation Mustang airbags, the new one is a work of art. :wavey
 
#3 · (Edited)
Like myself, I think he's fishin' for ideas as to how to put one of these...(or a leather-wrapped variant)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/Ascout/Camarox.jpg

in his Mustang. I had this one in my Camaro SS (D Stock Class winner, BTW) and they do lookin beechin'! Of course, there's the cruise control issue as well as the air bag. But I'd sure consider it....

(back "in the day", there was nothing to consider but hooking up the horn)
 
#4 ·
Ascout said:
Like myself, I think he's fishin' for ideas as to how to put one of these...(or a leather-wrapped variant)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/Ascout/Camarox.jpg

in his Mustang. I had this one in my Camaro SS (D Stock Class winner, BTW) and they do lookin beechin'! Of course, there's the cruise control issue as well as the air bag. But I'd sure consider it....

(back "in the day", there was nothing to consider but hooking up the horn)
Yeah, I think the wooden steering wheels looked best. Thinner is better too. One of my very early cars was a Datsun 240Z and it had a wooden shift knob and wooden steering wheel. Three spoke too, if I recall.

Arguably the wheels have started to look better with a more subdued airbag container. The Taurus's is huge and makes the whole thing look less than great.
 
#5 ·
JetBlack said:
...Clearly, a plain ole accident is far more likely than anything accidental involving an airbag but has anyone removed the modern steering wheel and replaced it with a plain jane one sans airbag?

Keep in mind I am not going to do this [wink wink] but I wonder if the whole steering column wasn't set up to only accept airbag equipped steering wheels...
Oh man...be careful, HazMat may be lurking!!!!! And you REALLY don't want him to start with the whole airbag thing!

:happyhapp
 
#6 ·
Airbag kaboom

KiLLeR_WoMBaT said:
Oh man...be careful, HazMat may be lurking!!!!! And you REALLY don't want him to start with the whole airbag thing!

:happyhapp
Yeah, many people seemed a bit touchy about airbags and warning labels and whatnot. I can see the concern for not wanting an undeployed arbag giving you an unexpected surprise, in the back of the melon, while doing an extrication and it occurred to me that the new kid, right out of the Airbag Training Course might not know that the new Mustang is *not* a 1967 and therefore *does* have the hidden surprise in the dash/wheel.

I would think those things could launch at least *most* of you through the back window. The rest of you would still be in the front, with the original victim.

It would seem safer to actually deploy the airbag before fiddling with it but then you don't have a steering wheel to put in orbit by placing it face down on the ground and deploying the bag *then*. Not that I would *ever* [wink wink] dream of doing anything like that [ahem... not making eye contact]. Or perhaps, putting the steering wheel in a plastic bag and inflating the bag from the oxygen tank on my cutting torch and letting that stew for an hour or so, before *not* setting it off. Because that would be a very bad example to be setting for the neighborhood kids :|

God knows I don't want them to grow up like me... especially not while I am still living nearby.

Can I get airbag-like warning stickers for people like me? Perhaps a shirt that reads: "For entertainment purposes only" so people know that my advice may be for *my* entertainment, not *their*safety.

BTW, Killer Wombat, I really like your .sig. So would my Dad. Many of his friends were P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s I may need to "borrow" your .sig for an email to him.:eyepoppin

-David
 
#7 ·
JetBlack said:
...BTW, Killer Wombat, I really like your .sig. So would my Dad. Many of his friends were P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s I may need to "borrow" your .sig for an email to him.:eyepoppin ...-David
David, take it, use it, share it. It's not copyrighted :winks!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top