Steering Wheel Restoration

[Mark Richardson]

When I was restoring my car years ago, I purchased a new steering wheel and hung the old one on a nail.
It was on the car when it was painted and suffered over spray to go with the cracks that were already there.

So while out in the barn I saw this poor wheel just hanging there and decided to bring it home to see if it could
be fixed up to look like new and possibly even be used on another car sometime in the future.

Here is what I am starting with. First step is to clean off the red paint, dirt, and grime to see what I am working with.
I hope no large pieces come off during this step.

 

[Ken Chambers]

I restored one in about the same condition. Used JB Weld to fill in the cracks and sanded to a very smooth finish. That was more than five years ago and it still feels perfectly smooth so nothing changed or got worse. So I'm happy with the JB Weld as it seems to have worked well.

 

[Mark Richardson]

I also used the JB Weld putty.
It worked well, but upon closer inspection I am seeing micro cracks that it did not fill.
The putty is fairly stiff so it does not flow into such small cracks like I thought it might.

If you look close you can see the cracks and some sanding scratches. I had to use some fairly aggressive paper to get through the JB Weld.



I have ordered some finishing putty and very high grit sandpaper to get material into those cracks and sand it down so everything is filled and smooth.

 

[Ken Chambers]

I used the squeeze tube epoxy that pushes into the cracks very nicely. There's the regular slow setting and the quick set version.

J-B Weld Professional Size

J-B Weld is The Original Cold Weld two-part epoxy system that provides strong, lasting repairs to metal and multiple surfaces.

www.jbweld.com

 

[Mark Richardson]

Ken,

This is going to sound strange, but I think my cracks were not big enough for the product I used.
That putty I had was probably better suited for gaps rather than cracks.

I actually smeared some on those cracks twice trying to fill them. After sanding and sanding to get it off and down to just the crack and seeing a crack still there I had to think of something else. I will post after the JB Weld finish body filler gets here the results.

 

[Ken Chambers]

Another trick is to V out the crack a bit to give the filler more surface area to adhere to.

 

[RalphF]

Ken,

This is going to sound strange, but I think my cracks were not big enough for the product I used.
That putty I had was probably better suited for gaps rather than cracks.

I actually smeared some on those cracks twice trying to fill them. After sanding and sanding to get it off and down to just the crack and seeing a crack still there I had to think of something else. I will post after the JB Weld finish body filler gets here the results.

Please finish the story...

 

[Mark Richardson]

I continued to work on the cracks and got them filled eventually with the finer more viscous JB Weld product.
Then primed, sanded, primed again and painted.

Then more sanding with ever finer grit paper and painted again.
It was a longer process than I thought it was going to be, but turned out great.

Note: Painting anything round is very difficult. I made a special holder I could attach the wheel to and spin it while painting. Still was a trial and error sort of project.

 

[RalphF]

What kind of paint did you use?

 

[Mark Richardson]

I found a Rustoleum ivory spray paint that was very close to the original with a clear top coat for maximum shine.

 

[RalphF]

I found a Rustoleum ivory spray paint that was very close to the original with a clear top coat for maximum shine.

I used the same paint in an almond color (it is what I had on hand) to paint all my dash knobs after cleaning them the best I could. They look like new. It is a really good match. Maybe I will tackle the wheel over the Winter.

 

[SNOWBIRD]

Just finished a wheel for a customer in Fl.