Rebirth of my steering wheel

[LEEVON]

Fist off, moderators please feel free to move this to wherever it belongs if need be. The thread in FAQ truck tech by ESLL (RIP) is great and thanks to him I had the motivation to try this. I also used my crappy old wheel as practice for a '63 Nova SS wheel that I'm restoring for my dear ole Dad.

I have always been conflicted about re-pop steering wheels, they are very nice but there is something about taking old parts and making them look new that gets me going. Especially something like a steering wheel that has so served such an important function!

Well my original wheel had seen waaay better days, it was cracked all over. The first step was a good cleaning. I used a dremel tool and small triangle file to open up all of the cracks down to the metal. I definitely would not make them so big next time but this was easier and I wanted to be sure that the new material would not crack. This is what it looked like when I was done filing/grinding:



I decided that PC7 epoxy was going to be the best and cheapest material to rebuild the cracks. The downside is that I couldn't locate it at any hardware stores and had to order from Home Depot online. It was less than $20 after shipping. Turned out to be great stuff, easy to apply and the perfect density/workability for a steering wheel. I really gobbed it on as you can see because I wanted to be sure there were no low spots:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3607/3463635637_8de5ac4e3b.jpg[/IMG

After curing for a few days, I took a half-round file to it and was able to do 95% of the shaping. The Dremel came in handy in a couple of tight spots too. I followed this up with some 80 grit sanding, then 120 on the whole wheel. I had to do another light application of the PC7 to fill in pinholes and a couple of low spots. After more sanding this is how it looked:


Continued...

[LEEVON]

Shot some 2K primer/surfacer:

Shot some inexpensive acrylic urethane in 510 medium blue with lots of hardener. To get the bowtie out of the horn button I drilled a very small hole in the back and pushed it out.


Here is the finished product back in the truck, these pictures don't really capture the color and gloss but it turned out better than I thought it would:

The only drawbacks that I can see are that this is time consuming and the grain on the wheel is a bit diminished. But it has a little "character". And for about $50 you can't go wrong.

[ChevLoRay]

So, you gonna paint it?

[bean]

That's awesome! you've motivated me to fix mine. I agree with what you're saying about fixing the old parts instead of repop.

[red71c10]

Originally Posted by bean

That's awesome! you've motivated me to fix mine. I agree with what you're saying about fixing the old parts instead of repop.

Mine's black so it should be even easier!

[j-dogg]

Beautiful!

[Critter]

Wow, looks like you did a great job.

[leddzepp]

That looks awesome! I re-did a black wheel a while back. It does take some time...but as you have shown, it is well worth it. It is so much better to retore original parts than buy new re-pops. Especially since the re-pop wheels don't always fit properly. The only thing I did different was use POR 15 epoxy. Sweet

[oldblue1968chevy]

nice job, how much time ya got in it

[LEEVON]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

nice job, how much time ya got in it

grinding/filing: 1 hr
epoxy: 1/2 hr
filing/sanding: 1 hr
primer: 1/2 hr
wetsanding: 1/2 hr
final paint: 1/2 hr

So, approx. 4 hours but each of the 6 steps was a different day. I think I started this back in December or something rediculous. I'm really slow.

[chas350]

cool, nice job.

[big_al_71]

Leevon,,,way to go!!!!

[sleepertruck72]

That looks real nice ! Great job !!!

[longhorn70gmc]

wow,
That turned out sweet. Good Job. 50 bucks and time is better then $190 these days for a new one. I want to do this to my green one I bought from JAIMIE72 about 8 years ago. It is projects like this that make our trucks nice and special to each of us.

[landsurvey1]

I wish I would have read this article a couple of weeks ago. I just bought a repop. for $200.00. I never had an original steering wheel, but after reading this, I should have gone to a junk yard and bought an original. Nice job.

[mesa]

Great Job. I have a really bad sterring wheel and its the wrong color did not want to spend the $$$ on a new one. Thanks for the info and the walk through you just saved me $$$

[68gmsee]

Great job! Guess I'm gonna have to go look for some of that PC7 stuff...

[OARNGESI]

that looks really good nice job

[LOW DOUGH]

nice

[Sinister]

That's awesome, nice work!

[tcb-1]

this posting is quite worthy of rep points and a permanent member of Krue's FAQ page!!!!

Very nice detail and explanation. I know ths will keep many from buying repop wheels to restore thier originals. hummmm, mater of fact, I may have to pick an old one up now and experiment.

BRAVO LEEVON!!!

[Liz]

copied over to the FAQ area

[tcb-1]

thank you Liz. well deserving.

[powell72]

That looks really good, nice job.

[thirdstreettito]

That is so cool, I read ESLL's(RIP)write up a while back, yours and his are both great, Now I'll have to restore my 72 wheel. Then go to the junkyard and restore a bunch of em and sell em!