Steering wheel clearance

[Bill Dugan <bdugan@domain.elided>]

From: Curt Cleavinger <rcleavin@domain.elided>
Subject: bucket seat/steering wheel clearance, springover report

Hello Binders!
  I acquired a set of bucket seats and bases that came out of a 1980
Scout. I
pulled the bench seat out of my Scout, and put the buckets in place.
Then I
noticed that the bottom of the steering wheel is only 4 or 5" above the
top of
the seat. It's entirely possible that the Scout the seats came out of
had a
tilt steering column, but buckets were available in Scouts without tilt
steering
columns, weren't they? Were the seat bases or seats different heights
depending
on whether the Scout had the tilt option? My steering wheel is the
standard one
I've seen on lots of Scouts (15"??) - I know smaller steering wheels
were available,
but they're not that much smaller are they?

Curt-
I've got a stock II with the big honkin' steering wheel and don't have a
hell of a lot of clearance either. 4" or 5" sounds about right. I have
no tilt column, and my rig came with hi-back buckets and no console.
From what I remember of my buddy Pat's Midas Traveller with the Rallye
wheel, there was a lot more clearance even though he had the swivel
captain's chairs and no tilt column. My girlfriend (5' 4") wants me to
swap the wheel out for a Rallye so she can drive too. If we jack the
seat forward all the way so she can reach the pedals (barely) she's
basically got the steering wheel in her bellybutton. Anybody have a
Rallye wheel and buckets who wants to add in?
BTW I heard somewhere the bucket seats from a Scout and the bucket seats
from the wondrous Chevette are the same. Any truth to this story?
Bill D.
'78 Scout II