I am considering repairing. the cracks in the wheel of my 54 Crestline, anyone tackled this job lately & what are the best products to use?? Thank You
I posted this a while back on the main forum. There are many different ways to repair a steering wheel,,this is how I did mine. I decided to repair my cracked and damaged steering wheel for the '54 "Ranch Wagon" and thought my photo's might inspire someone that is thinking about repairing their own steering wheel. This is what I started with, Basically the wheel had a lot of chips and hair line cracks, and a few really deep cracks that need filling. The tools are simple and I would think most of you have them in your tool box,,or in a kitchen drawer. files,***orted utility knives,hacksaw blade, sandpaper, Bondo, spreader, ***orted toothpicks and pieces of wood and a screw driver and PC-7 epoxy,your tool list may be different but I think you guys get the idea. After all the gouging and spreading the cracks to get a slight V groove I started trying to wipe the PC-& on smoothly with the plastic spreader and small pieces of wood,it became quite apparent within a few minutes that I had the best spreader for the job attached to my hand, my fingers worked extremely well. At this point I let it dry until the next day and started to sand,,I'll point out my mistake now so you guys can avoid it, this stuff doesn't sand as easy as you would think so smear it on just enough to cover the chips and cracks, don't cake it on in spots like I did. This is what the wheel looked like after a few hours of sanding, I did have to go back and address a few small hairline cracks I missed. After the final sanding I wiped the wheel down the final prep and shot it with etching primer. At this phase of the project the wheel sat idle for a while,,the time between priming your steering wheel and painting it may differ from my time frame, you could paint it the next day,,mine got put on hold for about a year and four months and it finally got painted this past Friday. And this is how it looks in the wagon. I used the same color on the wheel as the outside window trim, Dupont urethane base coat/clear coat. I think it turned out pretty good. HRP
Great info shared...cutting the V grooves are critical to make it last and not crack again at those spots...
Today I found a new problem with my elec system. 54 Crestline,239, converted to 12 volt. All lights work correctly when turned on. When I step on the brake pedal the right turn indicator on the dashboard lights up! Thinking I had a bulb shorted out I removed the all the tail & turn bulbs, Same problem! I used my ohm meter to check all grounds- body to frame, frame to block, block to body & dash to body, all OK!! Am I missing something?? Bad turn signal switch??
Check and double check to make sure all wires go to correct bulbs. I had the same problem on my 56 F100 with a Ron Francis kit. I had two wires switched, corrected them and all was well.
About all you can do it use a test light that will pierce and trace it back to the source. If you still have the original master cylinder the pressure senders have been known to fail, a lot of us have switched to a GM style switch that activates off the pedal.
I got it solved! 2 wires were switched. Looking at the Ford wire schematic from the turn signal switch to the front turn lights the wire color changes 3 times! Hard to see colors on 70 yr old wires. Thank You all!!
Thank you, I designed the style and drew it out on upholstery panel board, my pal Dave did all the sewing. We used Vinyl top trim at the bottom of the door to cover where the carpet and material meet. HRP Poster board template Pattern laid out. Tuck & roll cut and sewed. With the green vinyl, the tuck & roll installed and the factory trim installed. Completed with the carpet and vinyl top trim.
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