My 56 Ford steering wheel is HUGE.
Were all 56's this size? The car doesn't have
Power Steering, but I'm adding that.
Did cars with PS have a smaller wheel?
Thanks
Jim

Yes and yes.

Not sure about the power steering but you can get a 15" reproduction. I think all the usual suspects that supply 56 Ford parts carry them. I've been thinking about swapping out the one on my car.

Durham Missouri

Yes, cars had huge steering wheels back then.

And more turns from stop to stop.

My thinking was this was done BECAUSE most cars of the era didn't have power steering.

Try parallel parking a non-PS car of the era and you will know what it was like.  It took some muscles.  Yes, I'm old and I remember.

I know that by the 60's the Mustangs with power steering came with a quicker steering box than the manual steering cars.  I assume this was similar by then for all cars.

So if you do have an older PS car you can certainly switch to one of the smaller wheels offered with no worries. 

  All 56 Fords had the same size steering wheels,with or without power steering.T birds had a smaller one that will fit the full size car.  Carl

I'm assuming Carl's correct about the interchange. One of my friends has the 15" repop in his 57 bird. He's happy with both the fit and the quality.

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000219a~Z5Z5Z5AAFWC~P350.00~~~~S4O00SS7I173239123650C~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000219a

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Carl is correct I didn't reread the question before I answered, all 56 Ford cars had the same size steering wheel. I personally loved the big steering wheels.
 

What is funny though now my belly rubs the wheel on my 56 and it didn't on my first 56 back in 1959,maybe the wheel grew  LOL

Guess I'm lucky at 16 my stomach didn't hit and at 72 it still doesn't. Personally I would not ever change mine even if I modernized the steering box because I just like it. A friend of mine upgraded a 55 Bel Air and changed to a smaller wheel and just doesn't look right.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Back in the day I installed a custom racing steering wheel in my '57 Ford Custom 300 with manual steering. Much smaller wheel. A real bear to park it.