The dash is in reasonable shape -- only missing the tachometer. But the steering wheel is a little rough, and is starting to flake apart (delaminate?) over time and exposure to the elements.
Based on the other components making up the car, I assumed the wheel was a Ford or a Mercury, possibly from an early T-Bird. But, when I started looking to identify the wheel, I got a surprise. The guys at Pearlcraft (a steering wheel restoration company in Australia) identified it as coming from a VW, then Koch's and Wolfsburg West confirmed that it was from a 1956-1959 Beetle/Karmann Ghia.
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it? Take a late 40's to early 50's Ford chassis, add a Mercury Flathead, direct the power through a T-Bird shift with overdrive, populate the dash with Stewart Warner instruments, then add a wheel taken from a late 50's Volkswagen. I'd say that it was starting to sound like a junkyard special -- but most of these parts were almost new when the car was built.
