I have just purchased a new steering wheel and before I install I wanted to paint the column. It is not in bad shape, just needs sprucing up. I do not want to remove it completely to paint.

Can I just drop it from the dash, tape off the area around it to prevent overspray, prep it and paint it? Should I prime the whole column? What paint would the group recommend?

Any other tips would be helpful and thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Mitch
68 Coupe

removing it isnt much more work than dropping it down. I say remove it, you'll end up doing less work.

Drop the column, don't paint inside the car...
I rebuilt my column, sanded it down, used mineral spirits to clean up, then I applied Rustoleum Auto Primer Grey lightly as a base, dried, lightly sanded with 1200 grit, then applied multiple super light coats of OmniPak L10 Black Lacquer Paint (Ricks sells it), after a few good light coats I sanded 600 grit lightly, cleaned and applied a few more light coats, after it was dry I applied Duplicolor Lacquer Paint CLEAR, a few light coats. Came out great!
See:
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=72518

http://69camaro.nextmill.net/photos/column/column1.jpg