[Shotimes] a touch of black-FR500-long

[ianf@eden.rutgers.edu]

So this weekend, Bill Murray and I installed my FR500 wheel among other 
small interior maintenance issues....

1. This isn't exactly a bolt in mod although the keyway is the same.

2. Besides Jim Filozof and maybe Steve Peele (of cincySHO) has anyone 
else done this before?

-The SHO horn buttons need to be trimmed slightly to clear the wheel 
spokes. The threads in the backingplate are different than the SHO 
threads so one must get new screws and nuts to hold the cruise control 
buttons and horn buttons. I did manage to find the perfect screws/nuts 
for the job but I left the packaging at Bill's so hopefully he can let 
us know the thread, pitch and length.

I need to adjust my horn buttons so my airbag must come out again; 
right now the screws holding them in are probably too tight which is 
causing them to bind; I have no horn at the moment.

The rear shroud of the wheel itself doesn't line up perfectly with the 
wheel. The plastic tension nipples that hold it to the backing plate on 
the SHO wheel are too large for the holes of the FR500 wheel. We cut 
the nipples off (ouch!) and zip tied it to the backing plate. It worked 
great although it might be worth trying out an actual Mustang rear 
wheel shroud (and horn buttons, screws, etc for that matter)

It would help to have a spare wheel lying around to perform the surgery 
to minimize downtime. I used my orginal wheel to take parts from. My 
replacement 1995 wheel was left intact which I'll probably sell since 
the leather is in great shape (grey)..

I may consider finding lighted cruise control buttons if I can figure 
out if the wiring will bind in the wheel or not. I know that the 
Exploder had them (green illumination for some years)..

I dyed my airbag, rear shroud and column shroud satin black using VHT's 
interior dye. That stuff works great and the wheel/bag/column look 
awesome. I am going to use it to dye most of the interior since I love 
the black and hate the grey...I might get the bulk of that done this 
weekend.

The wheel? I LOVE it. It's awesome...Very worth doing, especially for 
$169. The leather is so thick and supple (and it smells good)-

Once again, I cc'ed SHOtimes since both lists seem dead as of late..

Ian