I'm broke as dirt, but I couldn't p*** up the change to buy a beautiful 1977 Fiat wood steering wheel, for 5 dollars!! the wheel is great, I'll be modifying the back and replacing the splines with a grant adapter, I just have to do some minor machining to make threaded insulators for the horn ring, the question I have is about filling the gap caused by wood shrinkage over the years, the wood is in great shape other then that. Are these real wood? if they are can't I just use plastic wood and then refinish the wheel like any other wood product? wheel on the car at the yard wood condition gap It's a beautiful wheel, even looking at aftermarket wheels I don't see another two spoke with lightning holes, the only wheels like this that are even close cost upwards of 200 bucks. I've always loved old wood wheels like this
If it's real wood, I'd sand the finish down to bare wood. Then I'd build up the gap with your choice of bondo/jb weld/epoxy and leave it a little bit shallow. Cover that with some wood filler/putty (it comes in different colors, pick one closest to the color of the sanded wood) to fill the last little bit of gap and sand it smooth then stain the color of your choice. Then about 9 layers of clear varnish with steel wool in between each coat. Then some lemon pledge for shine. If you don't want slick and shiny, instead of staining and clear varnish, use something like linseed oil without a clear. Do it right, and you'll never be able to tell there was a gap unless you point it out. I've refinished a bunch of military rifle stocks and some fine oak cabinetry (GIANT fish tank stand). I've never had a gap that big to fill, but the filler underneath the wood putty will serve the same purpose as a shallow gap filled with wood putty if that makes sense.
yea that makes sense, this has to be real i've never seen fake wood age like this, I have some minwax stainable wood filler, i was going to go to a slightly darker color maby a dark walnut, so it should hide well, I know a bit about woodworking, but i've never worked on a wheel as far as a gap.
I use JB weld and add stain to the jb to get the lightest color then draw the wood grain in and finish with clear . If you want the grain cut it in with razor blade.
I've never done a wood wheel with a big gap like that either. But if I was going to, that seems about the best way to keep the repair looking incon****uous. Treat it like a nail hole and use the epoxy or whatever to close the gap up to nail hole hieght. If you do a good enough job on the stain, nobody will notice the imperfection. I would make sure the putty is compatible with whatever filler you use (jb/bondo/epoxy), you know, make sure it'll stick so it doesn't just lift off soon/later.
It's not real wood. Use an epoxy after cleaning in the gaps really well. as it tacks off, make a grain pattern in it. You'll need to be good, or you'll be sanding to blend it in, then you'll need to put the grain back in a lot of it.
that split is pretty symetrical so why not use a piece of stainless to fill it? matching that pattern is probably not gonna happen. you could start with some round stock that is correct width then polish it.
Beauty! But I doubt that it's real wood. Wood doesn't crack across the grain like that, and there's a hole running parallel to the steel core that wouldn't be there in wood. Of course, it might be plastic-impregnated wood, that process was invented in WWII or a bit earlier. If you sand it, do it over a large sheet of plastic and save the sanding dust. Mix the dust with clear epoxy to fill the gap and voila, colour match!
I like 55 dude's fix. Pretty sure thats plastic wheel, and you could always test it with a needle , heat it up red hot and stick it in the back of the wheel somewhere, if it melts its plastic. A take off on 55 dudes as it looks like a straight split would be fill it and paint the band black, and divide the wheel into 3 sections, and add 2 more black rings at like 10 oclock and 2 oclock. would look cool...
If you live where it getes cold don't expect jb weld too work. The expansion and contraction rates of the material in the wheel and the jb weld are different. You'll finish with the project and it will look great then the first night you get really cold you see a crack and one side of the repair or the other. Made me just sick!!
The wheel is an early 62- 64 Corvair spyder as is the dash panel in the first photo. The spline on the hub is smaller than regular GM. deChrome
it has the original Fiat center logo on the cap, it looked to be original, I had a heck of a time getting it off the splines, I think i'm going to try and save the cluster too. I was looking at Eastwood and they have a wheel repair kit complete with graining paper, I'm not worried about the splines, i'm going to change the back to accept a grant hub anyway,.it's actually going to be pretty simple to do. The back is flat with the splines welded on to the back,once i cut off the splines then do some grinding and maby use a 3m flap wheel,i'll have a flat surface where I can put the three holes for the adapter. I finally figured out how to get the horn ring to work on the front, where the original three insulators went through, i'll put a round piece of phenolic over it attached with three screws, then i can thread it at three points for the horn ring. this will give me an insulated base to attach the horn wire from the grant kit to.
this is what it came out of, I spotted the webber carb too, might be useful, he will probably take ten bucks for it. If I had the money I might try to save the car, but i simply have no where to put it right now. He usually doesn't crush the really old stuff or rare stuff. He's got everything in this yard, there's even a Porsche 924 sitting in the weeds.
i bought a nice superior wooden wheel off ebay for a whopping $24 the wood shrank and was dirty from skin oil ? so i sanded it down and filled the gaps with 5 ton general purpose epoxy sanded it even with the wood and stained it with sedonia red min wax stain gave it a wipe with denatured alcohol to fade the color a bit , then cleared it with min wax exterior clear spar varnish smoothing between each coat with 0000 steel wool 3 coats i was happy with the results
this is the latest step on the wheel, I'm filling most of the gap with Marson flexible repair compound, it should allow the repair to expand and contract without breaking. It's a two part compound that you mix like body filler except it's mixed 1:1 It's mixed until it's a light blue color I used my finger to force the repair compound into the notch, to just below the edge of the wood veneer next will be the final filler
Ok, I have the original splines cut off, I wish I had my camera earlier because this involved a six inch angle grinder a cut off wheel, and a whole lot of sparks, took several cuts then broke it off with a pair of vise grips, I didn't want to risk cutting into the steel on the back of the wheel. That hardened steel throws some hellacious sparks. I ground down the remains with a flap wheel on the angle grinder, I still have some more grinding to do, the end result will be a nice flat surface on the back of the wheel for the grant kit to sit against. I have everything figured out and made now for the horn contactor. the horn center ring is painted black now, still not flat enough for me though, It could use some pin stripes. I will paint the arms black also of course this is the original horn contact ring setup, the ring sits on three small insulators that had rivets originally going all the way through to insulators on the back and the back plastic piece this would be the rear original slip ring this is the new phenolic insulator for the contact ring,the ring will rivet to it with a ring connector under one rivet, the rivets go over the old insulator holes, and the ring will rivet to the wheel center. I don't know the locations of the three holes for the grant kit yet, so I haven't drilled them. the horn ring insulator, it looks like this because I thinned it out on the belt sander, I hit it three times, one place for each leg of the contact ring. I needed the extra clearance so there would be enough space to be able to push the ****on. I'm filling the last bit of gap on the wheel repair with Elmers ultimate glue, it's almost like wood glue but a brown color, the neat thing is it expands when it dries, it also can be sanded and once sanded it accepts stain.
It's getting there ,I got it close but I can't that last tiny bit of material to fill, I'll figure out something later, I won't mention the car this is in because it's too off topic, I'll just say i've probably got over 20000 hours making all these ticky little parts. I hope this thread will be useful to other though, who would like to modify other wheels to fit. anyway myself and my bench are now covered with phenolic dust, finished the horn contact insulator to fit around the ****on head screws holding the wheel to the adaptor,. I used hardened ****on head screws instead of the cheap Chinese bolts in the kit, they wouldn't clear the insulator anyway. I'm not using any of the Grant horn stuff, since I had to design my own system to make the factory horn ****on function. (the Fiat ****on) . I finally have the wheel where it will turn the steering and I absolutely love it, it's going to be a lot of fun to drive with it, If I ever get this thing done. phenolic material makes a mess cutting with a dremel, I now resemble my bench back of adaptor insulator sitting on inside of wheel wheel still needs the steel parts painted It's actually attached to the splines and will turn the wheels
I was having trouble getting the horn ****on right, and finally realized that after I straightened the ring, it must have been sitting a bit higher, a few taps with a hammer and it works right now, there isn't much clearance there.
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