Hot Rods Steering wheel restoration

Steering Wheel Resto Job Finished | The H.A.M.B.

 

Nice job. I missed the original thread of your process, but went back and read it. Very clever save I must say. It came out great.

 

brigrat, that really looks great

 

wow nice work. that is a really cool wheel.

 

FYI: I used PC-7 on my truck's steering wheel and it looked great.......that is until it sat during a Minnesota winter in a unheated garage. All the PCV-7 cracked at the joints of the original wheel and the epoxy.

 

That's interesting - my truck has sat in an unheated Minnesota garage for 25+ years now, with no cracks in the PC7.

 

Excellent work, the steering wheel turned out beautiful. HRP

 

Thanks to all that liked the wheel! Pretty rare wheel but have one more to do when time permits!

 

What sort of paint are you guys using? I have a wheel with a horn ring on the docket for my 50.

The stock special wheel in it now gets sticky on cool, humid mornings. I would like to avoid that if at all possible when I swap to the new one.

 

Epoxy primer, base coat, clear coat.................................

 

Question for those that have repaired them, Do you vee the crack down to the steel ring? Wide cap or keep in narrow? When filling with PC7 do you fill it all at once or build it up in layers?

 

Yes, open the crack in a V down to the ring. I used a variety of small files and a hacksaw blade. I filled the cracks mostly in one pass, but had to go back and do a second pass in spots after filing and sanding the first pass.

 

My ‘51 Plymouth has some form of hard rubber material. I used PC7 to restore it. Within a few years hairline cracks started to appear. Perhaps I should have mixed in some flexible bumper additive to the paint.

 

I had a good friend that used to repair steering wheel cracks and used bowling ball putty! He repaired several over years and never had one come back with a problem.

 

Mine is be on repair.

 

To add 2 cents to the conversation..... I did steering wheels from about 1973 till about 1995
for Classic Chevy, Late Great Chevy, Volunteer State Chevy and many others - a few after that
into 2000 but the hands were giving out at that time from Arthritis. Look into a product
called Marine-Tex Epoxy ( the Grey version ) its hard, will adhere to things even under water,
is so strong that if something should crack - it will be the parent material pulling away from itself and not the Epoxy braking away from the steering wheel material. This product does not shrink,
but takes a while to set up over night before sanding. There are no issues with pin holes, nor
are there any stranded materials within the mixture. If you use a small grinder or even just a
file, clean things down to the metal rim ; you can use masking tape to create a small Dam on
each side of the area to be filled in, as gravity will allow it to settle into every single file or grinder
mark. Its available on Amazon in different size kits, but isn't that much more expensive today
than it was 25 years ago. This also has a great shelf life, mixes well in small 2oz Dixie cups with
Popsicle sticks, and cleans up with Lacquer thinner or Acetone - not much smell. For all
the products that were available some 25 years ago - from Bondo, fiberglass fillers, different
Epoyy resins, Bill Hirsh products etc, this was the most consistent, reasonable in price,
and had the best track record no matter what the cost was. I still have a few wheels in the
basement that were repaired over 30 years ago..... still no cracks ! This product is almost
a 100% duplicate of the materials that Bowling allies used to plug / repair holes in Bowling balls
when they needed to be redrilled. Some food for thought

 

Most Marine Boat Shops have Marine Tex, White or gray...........................