Steering Wheel Restoration

How to Restore Your Steering Wheel Text and Photography by Jeff Ford Time: 3-4 hours (approximately) Cost: Approximately 45 for Eastwoods Steering Wheel Restoration Kit (available at Eckler's) Tinware: Dremel tool kit, or similar brand. Steering wheel selection of knives, various sandpaper grits ranging from 80 through 600-800 grit Tip: Thoroughly degrease the wheel before applying We grab it, whack it, drum it, get it sweaty and some of us even at it when we are frustrated. We also subject it to blistering heat and frigid cold throughout its life cycle. Its the first thing we see when we get in and the last thing we grab when we are getting out. We to you: the steering wheel. This modified tiller takes a lot of guff from us drivers over the course of its life. The above mentioned scenarios are but a few of the ones we have seen and, well, if the truth be known, in. Obviously, there are reproduction steering wheels available for many brands nowadays, but theres always that one the model or year thats just not available, or maybe you just dont want to shell out the bucks. Were here to show you how you can get your old, cracked steering wheel back into showroom shape. We found that a from the Eastwood Company called PC7 was great for building areas like the rib on the spokes and for filling in the voids. We have since subjected the wheel to temperature changes varying from the low 30shigh 20s up into the 80s with no discernible cracking. Keep in mind that this type of work will require some finesse and In the end though, youll be well satisfied with the results. First off, youll need to remove your steering wheel. Use a steering wheel available on any of Ecklers brands websites. Our wheel, out of the car. You dont realize how ugly one of these worn originals is until you remove it from the car. During the 60s, Chevy most of their steering wheels. With the horn ring off, its easy to see the damage old man time has wreaked on this tired specimen. Cracks are everywhere. Typically these wheels will crack at the inner hub and outer spoke. They will also shrink and crack around the wheel itself. If you are not in of a high speed rotary cut-off wheel, get one. It will make fast work of all the cracks. We like the Dremel brand but any other will do just fine. Use the no. 426 fiberglass cutoff wheels to V (bevel) your cracks. We used a citrus-based cleaner to get the wheel a bit more spic and span. We then followed that up with a wipe down of lacquer thinner. Be sure to use rubber gloves when dealing with chemicals like lacquer thinner, as they can be quite toxic. After our initial cleaning, we went over the whole wheel with 320 grit to give the a base to stick to. Its a good idea to hit this with a as well. All of the gaps got an initial fill of PC7. After the stuff has set, youll want to rough it down with 80 grit dry sandpaper. The PC7 should be mounded slightly higher than the affected area so you can sand down to it as shown. Note the holes and crater. These will have to be filled with a subsequent layer and sanded down. This is closer to finished. Here we have moved to a 320 grit sandpaper and it down to a nearly flat finish. The darker areas are that will need additional filler. Forget about it! We hit this wheel in several areas a few times to get it just right. Note the higher spots. This is our first coat of self-etching We sanded it and fixed the that became much more evident with the light gray This step was repeated three times, with the next to last getting a sanding using 320 grit. The final coat got a light 600 sand and tack with a tack cloth before with our SEM Trim Black. We encountered some with "fish eye" in the and had to spray the with some adhesion We recommend getting some of this in the spray can when dealing with steering wheels as the oils form your skin can be very hard to remove from the wheel- even with sanding. We finished the task with a first light coat of SEM Trim Black, then three coats of heavier spray, then final with SEM Flexible Clear Coat Satin. Our thanks to Jeff Ford for this article. Visit Jeff's website for of useful videos on restoration tips. http:www.autorestomod.com