Restore or Repop?

[Divine 59]

I have two steering wheels for my truck. They both have minor cracks in the usual places. I am considering restoring them, but I am wondering if I have to open the cracks up and use epoxy. I know there is a steering wheel restoration kit. But since these cracks are about the thickness of a sheet or paper or a post card I wonder if I will cause more work for myself. Here is a couple of photos of one of the steering wheels.

Anyone done the restoration that can provide some information?





Thanks for responding.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Here ya go....
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=233643
Great write up from our deceased member ESLL

[_Ogre]

those cracks go to the metal core, i'd V them back to the core and use jb weld or some other epoxy similar to eastwoods restore kit.
this is also prime time to resize your wheel if you added power steering
CCT had a good article on re-sizing a wheel a couple mths ago.

[NEWFISHER]

+1 Ogre. I have taken a hacksaw blade and Vee'd the cracks, JB welded, sanded and painted severl wheels.
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[Russell Ashley]

You can get PC-7 epoxy at an Ace Hardware store for less money than Eastwood and no shipping charge. You probably already have everything else you need but the epoxy so you don't need to buy a kit.

[OrrieG]

I restored a 48 wheel for my truck. When you open up the cracks bell out the bottom to give the filler a bulbous root. Dentists do this on fillings. It keeps the filler from just popping out when temperatures change. I used my roto tool with a round cutting ball. I used JB Weld for the filler. When you paint touch sand the whole piece. Get primer compatible with the wheel material, I used epoxy primer with BC/CC. Tedious but worth the effort.

[Divine 59]

Thanks so much for all of the good information. I don't think I will resize my wheel. It was a bit stiff turning until I changed out the old ball bearing front wheel bearings for modern needle bearings. I can no one finger steer my truck with the original steering box.

Thanks again....

[mr48chev]

Thanks Orrie, I have a wheel that I want to redo for another project that I can use that info on.

Devine 59 I've never seen any info alluding to a truck steering easier because someone had swapped to roller bearings from ball bearing wheel bearings. Good king pin bushings that are well lubed and well lubed steering linkage that is in good shape helps some though. Also not having too wide of tires and rims and not having extreme offsets on rims helps.

From checking prices lately one can almost buy a full roller bearing conversion set for the price of ball bearings for one wheel though, the price has gone out of sight on ball bearings along with them not always being available through local sources.