puzzled by '69 steering wheels

[Imperial Aspirant]

Does anybody know why there are two types?

[ImperialAtom]

I'm no expert on the 69 model year, but maybe the left one is after market?

[Imperial Aspirant]

Possible, and it's a car I haven't seen in person, but it's close enough to the other wheel to make me think not. Look how the handgrips at each side are similar, and the horn ring looks the same except that it's a half-ring only on the brown one. The color of the brown one is an exact match to the dash, too.

So I'm leaning against it being aftermarket. It is really plain, though--if it's factory, you'd think it would have an eagle on it or something.

I thought for a while on whether it could be something to do with the safety regulations on collapsible steering columns, but I think those regulations came in by '67, so they wouldn't have been changing over in '69.

[Imperial Aspirant]

Brainstorm! The brown car has tilt wheel and the blue one does not. I think that's what makes the difference.