Steering wheel resto

Well, now we have alternatives.

 

Reinstalled

I reinstall the steering wheel this last weekend. It turned out good but not perfect. Much better than before. I'm more worried about the cold weather recracking it than the hot weather.

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

Well, what do you call cold?



Had to do that.

 

A small bit below freezing. No more than -4C.

No pics yet.

 

Huh, I thought the desert might get cooler. Here, water pipes and hoses are ok to -6C or -7C. But that's pushing it. You should be fine, because it's inert material and should expand/contract evenly with the styrene cruise parts. The wheel is a urethane material so it should be ok too, unless you beat it up.

 

you know that mighty putty is nothing but JB weld putty, some of the auto parts stores carry it. we use similar product that we call "pig putty". and we use it to seal leaking fasteners on the topsides/bottom sides of airplane wings. and that stuff never shrinks and we usually have to hammer it off. its the grey stuff. One day when we were bored, we did a comparison in chemicals, and its virtually identical to the crap they sell at the auto parts store. if i get cracks in the steering wheel, thats what im using.

 

So, I don't know if it was fault with the Mighty Putty or my methods but there are some hairline cracks showing now. They showed up after the first below 40* weather here.

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It still looks good.

 

That "Mighty Putty" is a product made here in Wisconsin. Great stuff. You can get it in building supply stores (usually near the plumbing supplies) too. It comes in a roll like a large Tootsie roll and is grey on the inside with a green "wrap" around it. You cut off what you need and knead it in your hands a few minutes and then use it. Can be used for just about anything. Billy Mays...the screamer on TV, (can't stand that guy) calls it "Mighty Putty" but it's been around a long time and it's one product that I have found that really works for leaks, filler...anything. You can mold it, sand it, paint it.

 

Mighty Putty is made here in Wisconsin? I did not know that! And Billy Mays is the man! My dad calls him Billy Amazing LOL.

 

Yeah CapriceEstate...I forget just where right now. If you go to Menards you can buy a small roll and it says where it's made on the pakage. I called and talked to the guy that invented it after I used it to tell him that he should go on TV with the stuff because it's a great product. 2 months later Billy Mays was screaming about Mighty Putty on TV. It's not called that in Menards...I'm sure Mays just calls it that for his infomercial. Billy can thank me for this account. And I don't even LIKE him.

 

Like most puttys, they will shrink and shrink then shrink somemore. Might have had better luck with Fiberglass filled body filler, aka Duraglass. It would have been a bear to sand down, but it would have lasted forever.

 

After a year the very hairline cracks are no bigger. This will fix very well.

 

I realize this is/was an old post in the beginning but Ditto with Norman on making a plaster mold for the clear. Got to a good art supply house and you can get some clear acrilic resin to mix and make the parts you need.
fiber glass resin will amber.

 

I have to throw this in, before I forget.

New steering wheel DIY, but not for the newer, textured, molded wheels. More for the smooth pre-1965 steering wheels. They were usually a black epoxy-type plastic with a sort of pearlized finish. It would work on the smoother, newer wheels, like my 1979 had, but not the textured ones.

The Beetles shared that kind of wheel and this guy did a fine page on the process and materials:
http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqstrg.htm

He also did a nice write-up on car paints (body and other parts)
http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqpnt.htm

And this one (pearlized):
http://www.classictrucks.com/tech/0705ct_steering_wheel_restoration/index.html