DIY Steering Wheel Resto

[rball716]

So after a lot of searching around for a steering wheel I really liked I came across the stock 1979 Corvette wheels from a build around here. Reproductions were running around $200 which was out of reach for me being a college student trying to build a full truck on internship money. So I found an old one on ebay for $10 and was hoping my upholster could cover it for cheap. Should have found out first that its time consuming so the price would be more than a reproduction.

Oh well, guess I'll have to give it a go.

Just a preface, I haven't sewed since Home Ec in 7th grade. It's not that hard just time consuming.

Heres the wheel when I got it. $25 shipped to the house.



Cutting off the old crusty leather



Beneath that was a layer of really hard crusty glue it seemed like. Hard but also brittle, if you kind of stab at it with a screwdriver and then scrape it using the side it comes off pretty quick.



Here it is all cleaned up



Now take the old cover and give yourself a rough outline of the pattern. After that take some measurements and clean up the template. Give yourself just a touch extra on the end to sew the ends together, but not too much as the piece should fit very snugly so it doesn't move around. You could also glue the sides for the middle seam back to give you a really clean seam, I didn't and I like the look.

Either sew the ends together yourself or take it to someone who can stitch a straight line on a machine. The backsides should face outward so when you flip it back you don't see the stitch.

Work the piece over the steering wheel doing your best to line up the spokes as it goes on because it wont be easy to slide once it's on. Soaking the leather in hot water will make it stretch too.

Once its on check to make sure the spoke line up and there should just barely be a gap between the edges of the seam, this will get pulled together when you stitch it. By just barely i mean less than an 1/16th inch. Do the same along the sides of the spokes. Fold the ends at the spokes over and glue them.

Remove the cover, flip it inside out, and mark your stitches on one side. I used 1/8th inch from the edge and 1/4 in spacing between stitches. You can play with this on test pieces to your liking, I also used thinner thread than usual as it matched the rest of my material and I liked the look. Again thicker will work depending on your taste.

Once you have them laid out on once side, fold the cover lengthwise and use a large needle to poke holes through both sides of the leather. This ensures the stitches will be even on both sides. You'll have to do this in sections and it helps to weight down the fold to keep it flat. You can see my marks on the back side of this test run.



Start at the top side of a spoke and loop the thread around the first set of holes twice. This is a baseball stitch, there's a few different types of stitch you can use. There's a few good youtube videos on this that can show the stitch better than I can.



Continue this pattern carefully pulling it tight after each stitch and keeping it centered.

Here is the final stitch and the final product.





Now you can take pride in doing it yourself and for a total investment of $30 I'd say it turned out pretty nice. Also can help you bring your interior together just a little bit more than a plain reproduction.

I hope this helps a few guys out at least. I learned a lot myself anyway.

Build on

[73kay]

Looks good! Thanks for the post.

[UKNOWME]

Looks like you did a great job! Maybe you could do that for extra cash! If you decide to, shoot me a PM. I'll be looking for a new wheel in the near future for one of my builds

[bnoon]

Dang, good job!!! I love those steering wheels and have been thinking of doing the same thing. How long did it take you?

[franken]

Looks great.
I guess the new cover was not something you fabbed up?
There's a site called wheelskins.com I bought a leather cover from for a Camaro wheel. It looks good and the wheel feels way better than the hard plastic.

[bnoon]

Question... is that the stock Corvette hub adapter?

[slotard]

Originally Posted by UKNOWME

Looks like you did a great job! Maybe you could do that for extra cash! If you decide to, shoot me a PM. I'll be looking for a new wheel in the near future for one of my builds

Agreed, he could make some money doing them for people.

[rball716]

73Kay...

Thank you!

UKNOWME...

I'll shoot you a PM but thank you. Price is the big issue. It does take a while but the results were great especially considering you can get a custom color scheme.

franken...

It was all fabbed up by me. I got a piece of leather and drew the pattern on the back cut it out and kept cutting and fitting to get it right. Definitely a better feel than plastic. It just seems to melt into your hand better than even new steering wheels.

bnoon...

All said and done around 10-12 hours. Lots of measuring, cutting, remeasuring, stretching, laying out the holes, poking the holes evenly, then final fit and hand stitching. It tests your patience but it was satisfying in the end. I've gotten a lot of good feedback in person.

Also it isn't the stock adapter. I didn't know they had one? Either way just a 3-6 hole black billet adapter. I'm going to be machining a horn button on the lathe and CNC to bolt through with stainless socket cap screws, a red chevy logo and black everywhere else. I have my horn wired to a momentary switch where the manual choke used to be.

[blazer2007]

what wheel adapter did you use ? I have a old vette wheel sitting here for years but I couldn,t find a adapter online.

[rball716]

It's a GT performance adapter. Summit PN# GTX-20-3006

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gtx-20-3006

[Eyegore]

Nice job!!!

[Jaysonb]

Nice work!!

[bnoon]

Originally Posted by rball716

It's a GT performance adapter. Summit PN# GTX-20-3006

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gtx-20-3006

Awesome. Added it to my wish list on my Summit account.

[Shifty One]

Wow! That's beautiful!

[1774btcrew]

Amazing work! This isn't just something anyone can do! You made it look like a professional did it!

[hatzie]

That's some very nice work...
I've done vehicle upholstery with my Singer 319K & 201 sewing machines. Hand stitching a leather steering wheel or shift boots with exposed decorative stitching is beyond my meager talents. Seat and headreast upholstery fabric can be marked in pencil or colored carbon pin transfer wheels on the back. Those marks give me a pinup and stitching guide that's not obvious from the top of the finished product.
No such thing when you're stitching from the top like this... That takes more than patience. The couple times I've attempted this type of work I can see my stitches were not evenly distributed after they are done but I've discovered I don't have the detailed eye to start them correctly with no guide.