I decided to get started on restoring my steering wheel. It was a little hard at first to start cutting away at a part I want, but you have to start somewhere. I had lots of cracks, and these pictures are of the v-notches I cut today. I picked up the el-cheapo hacksaw from OSH.
If anyone has any tips, let me know. I'll post with progress.
Also, I hear that the first gen chrome clips do come off and go back on without too much trouble. Any suggestions from those that have had success removing and reinstalling them would be welcome.
As shown in the pic below, I don't yet have the stones to notch the areas where the spokes transition from textured to smooth. I figured once I get the hang of working with the PC-7, I'll circle back to those last parts.
I bought the Eastwood kit for repair steering wheels. Cutting and filling it, then sanding it to proportion is a science all of its own. I am 85% happy with mine.
this wheel had cracks at the base were the texture is. its a pain but can be retextured with a sponge:yes:i just used regular two part epoxy that you mix up.that stuff sets up fast,so you cant mess with it to much.just tape off the untextured part and use the sponge to get it to match.patience is the key.after i did the tiny v notches i took a real small drill bit to give the epoxy something to grab to instead of the v grooves being kinda smooth.
took me years to find the NOS ss cap/horn ring setup
First, this stuff is incredibly sticky!!! Not like working with Bondo, think more stiff and sticky chewing gum. I found it very hard to work with it using a putty knife.
What I ended up doing, after some trial and error, was gooping some in the crack with the putty knife, but then wetting my fingers with the laquer thinner and molding it around. It's still hard stuff to work with, but using wet fingers seemed to be the best way.
I am hopeful that once it sets for an hour or so, I will be able to knock down the high points before it turns to stone.
Heat speeds the chemical reaction/curing. Generally the epoxy generates it's own heat as it cures, so the thicker you apply it and the warmer it is where you are working, the less time you have to work with it. If yours comes out real nice you can do the one I loaned you as well.
Heat speeds the chemical reaction/curing. Generally the epoxy generates it's own heat as it cures, so the thicker you apply it and the warmer it is where you are working, the less time you have to work with it. If yours comes out real nice you can do the one I loaned you as well.
The PC-7 stays very sticky for at least an hour. Normal cure time at 70 degrees is 12-24 hours. I was afraid it would be prohibitively hard at the 24 hour mark, so I attacked it at after about 5 hours. As you can see its soft enough to cut with a razor, but probably a little softer than it should have been to work on.
My window for work was closing, so I moved forward anyway. I know, patience usually produces better results, but was anxious to make progress.
At this stage I used a few rough round files, and 180 grit paper with a soft backing. I am pleased with the progress so far.
It does take a firm hand, which made me nervous, but you will eventually tweak them enough to remove. I don't think they snapped back entirely to their original shape, but I do think I'll be able to press them back on and give them a squeeze to firm them back up.
A few more pics of the epoxy removal. Going to start wet sanding soon.
I'm glad I waited to attach the textured part last. It gave me some time to consider how to approach it. Since the cracks were in about the same place and fairly close to the center, I decided to shorten the textured portion, rather than try to recreate the texture. Having worked on the filing and wet sanding of the first cuts, I now more fully appreciate how important it is to limit the amount of unnecessary epoxy. I decided to tape off my cut lines and then do the cuts.
I found using the epoxy a second time around was a lot easier. I made sure to use a very clean putty knife dipped in laquer thinner to move the stuff around in addition to a finger nail dipped in laquer thinner. It worked well enough that I was able to "push" the epoxy off the tape line and then lift the tape. This made for a very nice break line and also avoided getting the epoxy on the texture. Given how concentrated the remaining bead is, I'm confident it will be fairly painless to shape this down after it sets for 5 hours or so. I only wish I had done the other cuts with this method. Live and learn ..... and post.
The best news, a buddy in San Jose who runs a body shop agreed to shoot it next time he is shooting a black car.
Hey Derek, good luck. I've tried this before. I have a buddy in Arkansas that restores steering wheels as a hobby to fund his 57 Chevy project. He's great at it! I sent him mine after I failed. Definitely not easy and very time consuming! He sent me back what looked like a brand new wheel. I'm not sure how he does it.
Oh yeah, don't get any of that epoxy on the Rolex.
Im looking for a headliner for my beautiful Nova, But no one seems to carry them, The 2 door seems to look like it will fit but don't want to spent 300.00 just to try... Can anyone please help.. Thanks Guys
Im new to this site..
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