Steering Wheel Restoration Tips

Post by **Timothy Field** » 18 Feb 2014, 19:56

I thought it might be worth adding the steering wheel restoration I’ve just completed for my Redhill Rapide project.

This is a project that’s taken a fair amount of time to complete as the wheel was not in a good state to begin with and also I’ve never done a steering wheel restoration before so their has been a lot of trial and error and rework along the way.

As the wheel rim rubber was somewhat damaged I’ve used silicone sealant to fill the undulations and cavities. To spread this I found the best way was to make a spreader out of stiff cardboard which followed the same cross-sectional diameter of the wheel.

The type of leather I’ve chosen for this project was Goat Skin (Napa Leather) and I chose a medium weight of around 0.9mm thickness. Although in hindsight I think slightly thicker might be better to control the pull on the leather when stitching.

One of the first problems encountered was the uneven surface of this particular wheel where it had degraded. Even though I had filled the rim it was still showing though the leather. So what I have done is put a layer of scrim between the leather and the wheel to act as padding. Scrim is the soft airy foam used on car door panels etc. The thickness of the scrim chosen was 3mm. I also found that stretching the scrim when attaching it to the rim helped and I used a band of carpet tape around the wheel at the start and finish of the scrim to hold it in place. The reason for stretching the scrim was to make it less floppy on the internal diameter of the wheel otherwise it creases up under the leather. I also made sure it didn’t overlap on the internal circumference. I found that putting cable ties on around the scrim helped keep it in place and also when it came to putting the leather over it helped this slide in place.

In terms of the leather due to the skin I ordered I found the in logical way was to make to wheel up in three pieces and in terms of the design of wheel I had I wanted it to partly cover the spokes. There are various ways to punch and cut the leather however I went for the idea of making a simple template on my PC to the correct shape and contain all the holes on. My reason for this was I decided to use panel pins to punch the holes and also by leaving the pins in place everything would be held down for cutting the shape out. I also used a cork lined board as a work surface. One major factor I found with all of this is when deciding on what length leather you need is to work on the internal circumference of the wheel. This means that the leather then has the stretch over the wheel hence is not baggy and when stitching it doesn’t bunch up on the internal circumference.

With stitching round the wheel I used a linen thread of about 0.8 mm thickness, although it also might be worth looking at waxed braided thread for next time. To join the three pieces together I used a thinner but strong nylon thread so it was less visible at the joint. In terms of the needles used I used curved ones to work round the wheel, before starting I blunt the needles this stopped them from bursting between the strands the thread is made up of. When stitching its also best to divide the wheel up into 1/6 segments that way your not trying to cover too much in each run.

There are various different patterns of stitch but the one I chose was after watching a You Tube Video on restoring steering wheels.

I also found the with the stitching when pulling it tight its best to always pull back towards the last stitch, this help stop the leather from stretching and with a creased part at the end.

Once you get to the end of a run of stitching then I found it was best after tying the ends on a knot to then sparingly coat the knot in super clue to make sure it doesn’t come apart.

With the leather around the spokes I used leather glue and first secured the leather up to the internal diameter of the wheel letting this dry first before forming it around the spokes.

It takes a long time and I reckon I can still improve on the result as I’m learning along the way, time to start the next wheel!