Now that the internals are done I took the upper cover parts and painted them with VHT black wrinkle paint. I used it on the Formula steering wheel too so it all matches. I also bought one of the horn button 1st gen Firebird emblems that Talons24 reproduced. Firebird emblemThis is really a quality item and I bought another just to have. The column looks a lot nicer than I expected. I also used some large diameter shrink wrap to seal it all up. The plastic mast cover is still under it all but I wanted a better, tighter product. The tilt end of the column I used was cut for the steering wheel nut retainer clip GM used on later columns. I am waiting for that to come so I haven't pushed the horn button in place yet. You don't want to mess with that as little as possible. Why do all this you ask? I ordered a re-built tilt column from Firebird Central months ago and their supplier has not been able to locate a core to re-build. These tilt columns are very rare and expensive. That is why I saved this one for so long. The collapsed mast part is unavailable but I don't mind cannibalizing a standard column for that part. Here is a shot of the entire column and then the steering wheel with the 1967-69 Firebird emblem. It is sitting on top, not pushed on yet. I think that emblem just makes this super cool.