The lack of 4WD was sometimes an issue on firewood hunts. And sometimes an issue in Central VA - we don’t get frequent storms, but when we do they can be nasty.
The “chick-mobile” (as my brother named it b/c it was the obvious choice when you went out cruising for chicks 
) had drum brakes all around. And that sucked. But it’s where I learned to do drum brakes. In fact, it’s where I started learning all manner of repair things - clutch, carb, wheel studs, starters, etc. It’s also where I learned how bad it could be mix bias and radial tread tires. I don’t think you can the bias tires anymore for road vehicles … but I had a couple once!
I mever used a steering wheel puller, jut pulled back with my knees on the wheel and put the flay part of a tire iron against the top of the shaft and hit it with the hammer. removing the heads of a flathead or OHV engine was much easier in the old days, no fuel rails to deal with m no stupid plastic wiring connectors that break when you take them apart. I never thought of a steering colum as something hard to remove. I never had a kift , so dealing wuth a rack jammed against the back of a transverse engine was a lot harder for a guy my size.
As fat as the safety of a 50s car, safety used to depend on not hitting things. Cars are safer today but we are heading for old fashioned fatality numbers because drivers are not.I see drivers using all the lanes of a six lane street just to make a turn.
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When I was stationed at NATO Headquarters, Southern Europe, Naples, Italy, in 1980 or so, I built my son the pictured cart. The wheels are off a baby carriage and the Steering Wheel is from an abandoned old Fiat flipped over on the side of the road. I tied a long chain to the doorpost, tossed over the bottom of the car and hooked it to my Renault, and I pulled the Fiat over and upright. To remover the steering wheel, I removed the horn ring, loosened the steering wheel nut and unscrewed it enough to just cover the threads on the steering shaft. I put my back into it and started pulling, yanking, straining, almost ripping the muscles out of my back while my son, then 8-years old, swung a 3-pound engineers hammer on that nut and shaft. It finally broke loose and we transplanted it onto his home-built cart.
I have had lots of experience building carts like this when I was a kid. My steering wheel came off an old school bus and it was a much bigger wheel… But mine, as most of my friends did, we had actual soap box derby wheels and since we lived in the mountains of New York state, we had some wild rides… But none of us had a spring loaded seat… (did you notice the springs?)
In Castel Vulturno (north of Naples) where we lived, the land was relatively flat as our villa was on the Mediterranean. So, to give my son the thrill of driving and speed, I fastened up a long pole, that I used like a “jousting lance,” it fit into a notch on the back of the cart and I held the other end and I pushed him around the roads (all rural) on my Gilera Dirt motorcycle… He was the envy of every kid in the area…
Yeah, in retrospect, I know it was crazy, but these memories I share with my son are something we still joke about 45-years later…
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Ray recommended a similar technique to a podcast caller. I think in that case he said the caller could just sit in the driver’s seat, grab hold of the steering wheel and pull it off. I’d worry about damaging something by yanking on the steering wheel, and would use some sort of puller.
Thank for posting the fun story about your home brew push car @LoudThunder 
Fancy design indeed, esp the spring loaded seat. It was pretty common to see people bicycling with home-brew spring loaded seats when I spent a little time in southern France some years ago. I’ve never seen that in the USA.
As a kid, a couple of my neighborhood friends built a less elegant version. By “less elegant”, I mean no reliable steering mechanism. They both got in together & crashed into a fence post on its maiden (& only voyage) … lol …
Isn’t NATO headquarters in Brussels?
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