New Product: 1968-69 ALL Ford 8-Position Tilt Mustang Steering Columns

ididit introduces the Ford Top Shaft and Ford Turn Signal Switch collapsible steering column for the 1968-69 Ford Mustangs! This made to fit column will include age specific style knobs & handles and will also include the male & female plugs with terminals. ididit's new 1968-69 Mustang column will accept a stock Mustang steering wheel or an aftermarket wheel with an adaptor. By using the stock underdash mount and floor mount and purchased separately installation kit, the installation will be a snap! An OD floor mount sleeve will come with each new column purchase. The OD floor mount sleeve will fill the gap between your original floor mount and the new Mustang column. The all new 8-position tilt 1968-69 Mustang column is available in Paintable Steel, Chrome and Black Powder Coated.

Click the link for more information:

http://www.ididitinc.com/retrofit_columns/mustang_tilt_column_fs68_69.html

ididit introduces their Newest Made to Fit Column: 1965-66 Mustang Tilt Floor Shift

ididit is introducing their newest steering column to hit production and we all couldn't be any more excited to see this column grow in our industry! Coming up at the Goodguys Columbus show, we will be introducing the first Ford Top Shaft and Ford Turn Signal Switch steering column for the '65-66 Mustangs! The column will include a special new floor mount, Mustang style knobs & handles and male & female plugs with terminals. This column will accept a stock Mustang steering wheel or an aftermarket wheel with an adaptor. By using the stock underdash mount and a coupler, the installation of this column couldn't be less complicated! It is available in Paintable Steel, Chrome and Black Powder Coated. To view ididit's flyer of this new column click here and the new part numbers for the Mustang columns are in the newest price list!

Customer service no matter where you see ididit:

ididit recently trucked out to York Pennsylvania for the NSRA Nationals. On a normal day we may have a couple of our customers come to us in our booth and ask technical questions about our products. What they don't expect to see is an employee of ididit come out and work on their car right there on the spot, if need be. That instance happened at the York NSRA show this year. Scott Callison (who is the VP of Manufacturing) was part of the ididit posse at this year's event and happily helped Tom and JoAnn with their signal switch issue. Tom and JoAnn were so happy that someone was able to assist them with their signal switch that they sent us a couple of pictures of Scott working on their column. They also sent us a very nice thank you note. We wanted to share this information with you because we want to express how important each customer is to us and to let everyone know that we are there for them at these events.

The “Shoe Box”

We are in our busiest time of the year at the moment. I have one day in the office between the NSRA Nationals and Hot August Nights.

As always, we go to these shows looking at the future trends. I have observed that the early ‘50’s cars have certainly had many discussions in our booth. It is an easy fit for a steering column! But it really surprises me. I have nothing against Fords, but ’51 and ’52 are not their best body years! It is really hard to get any aero dynamics out of a shoebox! Putting on fender skirts, or chopping the top is interesting, but you still have a “shoebox”. You can give them dark glass, but you cannot really lay the posts back. I have not seen a shoe box station wagon, but I think it might look like the newest body style Ford just introduced, the “Flex”. What a thought!
To be fair to all you “shoe box” owners out there, I have seen some very nice ones finished. Posie has a great one. They have an excellent ride. They travel well, even unchanged. But, they are still my grandfather’s car!

If you are interested, the trends we are hearing are going towards the Tri Five Chevy, the Camaro, the 50’s pickup trucks, and the late ‘50’s, early ‘60’s Pontiac and Olds. (They are so big and fat, they are the beauties of their owners eyes.)

I hope to have a blog for you next week after I return from Reno. It should be an interesting trip!

Jane

On the Road Again!

We went, for the first time, to the Right Coast Nationals in Syracuse, NY. Well, that was an adventure! The last time we were in Syracuse was at the NSRA Nationals in 1995. I swore I would never go back (and NSRA never did!) It was 104 degrees! The fairgrounds were crowded with buildings. It was hard to tell which building had exhibitors and which one did not. We had nnnnno business. Our hotel was next to an abandoned warehouse with broken windows and the view from our room was under a highway overpass! There was only one redeeming feature, the people there were great to us. They could not have been more friendly or helpful.

Now, 13 years later, we had to put all that behind us. Our sales manager, Marty, kept insisting that this show was getting more and more attendees, and we should be there. Their promoters told us they had more than 7,000 cars last year. Now that is a number that perked my interest! I asked what years were covered. All I could find out was they let everything in! Okay, I told Marty, we will take a small booth at this show once to see what it is like.

Ken and I had so much fun looking at cars we had never seen before at a car show. Volkswagens, Corvairs, Custom Vans (with teardrop windows and shag carpet!). Of course there were hot rods and classic Chevys, but there were tractors with small block Chevy engines and wreckers from the 40’s. There were pin striping contests, burn outs (in a controlled environment), lawn tractor pulling, and snowmobile races in the grass! I have to say there was something for everyone! We are probably going to add this to our travels next year! Oh yea, we accidently stayed at the same hotel. The warehouse was demolished. A pretty little park was left in its place, so pretty, as a matter of fact; photographers were shooting wedding pictures there. Our room did not face the expressway. Life was good!

Next week is the NSRA Nationals in Louisville. We will be there in the middle of it all. This is the granddaddy of all shows. If you want to talk to a manufacturer, this is the best place to catch up with them. It is a long show, and we will be exhausted when it is over. Our sales staff loves going, and loves when it’s over. I am going to Hot August Nights in Reno on Tuesday of the next week. Then we go to Pleasanton CA. at the end of August. If you like these blogs stop by and tell me. I sometimes wonder who is out there reading. See you soon!

Jane

There is nothing like building your own street rod!

If you think because we have a hot rod shop, we are any different than you, you are soooo wrong. Ken is trying to get his ’37 Chevy on the road. (He has had it under construction for 21 years.) We have paid some people to do things along the way. Usually, when he is frustrated because nothing is getting done and he really wants a ride! Some things have turned out perfect while others have been torn apart by Ken, because they were totally unacceptable. It turns out that every seemingly small project takes a month to finish! This car will be exactly what he wants when it is done. Suede black paint, since we don’t have time to repair paint jobs. Steel painted wheels with baby moons. (who has time to polish aluminum when you could be driving?) A comfortable interior that seats four so if we have time to go out with friends, they can just hop in!

Shall we mention reading the instructions? I heard the perfect solution from a girlfriend of mine! She stands next to the workbench and reads all the instructions out loud! He doesn’t have to read them and she remembers them! We here at ididit know that men only read instructions out of desperation. I understand why, after reading a few….some creative slang would be comic relief!!!!

On one of our many adventures with my panel truck, we had an electrical problem. When you go on a tour you have an advantage that there is always someone that has more knowledge than you do about some subjects. Lucky for us, we had an electrically skilled person on the tour. I told him the problem, he had a solution! He goes to his trunk to get his electrical tools. He came back to our truck carrying an old purse! He told us it was just the right size, had a handle, and protected his tools! This is a creative man who has no problems with his masculinity!

It’s okay to laugh at ourselves with others! A sense of humor is a must in hot rod. Have a great week!

Jane

The Michigan Tour

We have just experienced Hot Rodding at its best! A couple of weeks ago Ken and I had the privilege of leading a tour through Michigan. This tour was made up of eight couples who loved hot rods and loved to drive them! These were creative people that were open to a new adventure! Michigan is not at its best financially, but early summer is a wonderful time to visit! Many of these couples had never seen the “Great Lakes State” before so I found some beautiful spots to show them! We traveled more than 900 miles of beautiful shoreline.

Some of the highlights of our trip: a wooden boat builder in Holland; a custom car builder; lookout over Lake Michigan; lunch at the sand dunes; visit to a shop that puts the wood on woodies; staying at a historic hotel in Petoskey; a trolley ride; Mackinaw Island during the Lilac Festival; a light house; Frankenmuth Chicken. We not only had chicken and German food, we had Polish food at Leggs and great Italian food in Saugatuck.

All these people had only one thing in common, their love of cars! The cars were dependable for all 900 miles. There was not a single break down. There was a couple ‘32’s, a ’47 convertible, a couple ’50 shoebox, a killer 50’s pickup truck, and a ’60 something Buick (which we affectionately called “the boat”). They were all on time in the morning (no egos in this group!). They were doing what they had worked so hard for, DRIVING THEIR HOT ROD! We were all tired of having fun by the end of the week…isn’t that what life should be? Have a great summer! Enjoy the moment!