I'm finding out the hard way that there is a LOT of little nitty gritty differences between early and late model GC8's.

Most of which we can handle but I'm stuck on one ATM...

With the steering columns out of a 99' and a 95' there is a difference in the diameter of the column itself as well as the hole in the firewall.

I need someone who can make me a custom grommet to fit, or should I weld a sleeve to the column? (99' is slimmer and has a better style "shimmed" grommet not just a rubber sleeve as in the 95).

Anybody had to deal with this before?

Suggestions?

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500+hp and helis on tap, eta - June 2025.

I've heard of people cutting out the right sized hole from a crashed later model car, I've heard of people ignoring it, I tried spacing out the column with electrical tape to make it fatter. You could get a custom grommet made up. You could just punch a hole throuh a piece of steel and weld it over the existing hole.

In the end with mine, I pulled apart a late model steering column and bolted the brackets to the early model column. The only issue with this, is you end up with a non collapsible steering column.

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MY93 Impreza GX 1.8L, 0hp, 0nm

I have done this a few times with great success.

use the early firewall gromet,

use the late column,

cut about 10cm from the outer lower casing of the early column, slip it over the late column, bolt the late column to the late dash bar, slide the piece of early column down so that it locates in the firewall gromet and tack weld it to the column.

finally remove the column and stitch weld the two pieces together.

be careful not to overheat it.

paint/seal the welds/join.

reassemble.

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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

That sounds like a goer, cheers!

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500+hp and helis on tap, eta - June 2025.

I used my early column, got the grinder onto the two small welds that hold the indicator stalk plate on, and welded that from the late onto the early column. Hope that makes sense.
Only other prob I had in doing so was the ignition barrel. If you are using the transponder type key, you will need to use a die grinder to open up the hole for the steering lock. I did this no trouble at all.