Leather steering wheel cover recommendation?

[adamr]

I am wondering if anyone has experience with a quality leather/leather like steering wheel cover/wrap. I'm looking for one that would be sewn/hand stitched. My wheel is finally starting to disintegrate a bit:mad:.

It's for my 99 Lexus GS300, which just turned 155,000 miles. BTW, I've only had to spend $600 on non-wear repairs so far! This car really is bulletproof:love:. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Adamr

[hd240z]

My Z has a lace on leather cover from Black Dragon (I think). Its been on for a long time and still looks good.

My 2000 Accord has a Wheelskins leather cover that you lace on, but is different from the Black Dragon one which uses a fairly heavy cord. Its been on for 5 years and is finally starting to show some wear (character?). The Wheelskins come in lots of colors and take an hour or two to lace on if you want it to look nice. I believe their website is wheelskins.com.

[adamr]

Thanks! Anyone else got a tip?

Adamr

[DatsunZGuy]

My 1993 Toyota MR2's steering wheel leather was cracking. I sent it in to American Stitches back in Feb 2005, and had it recovered for $279.00. Sounds like a lot, but the quality of their work was worth it...IMHO. The steering wheel is still holding up great today.

Edited November 5, 2009 by DatsunZGuy
resize photo

[ggarrard]

I've used the Wheelskin covers on both our van and daily driver steering wheels and am pleased with the product. The hardest part is getting the stitching pulled tight enough. The first time I tried, I couldn't get a snug fit at the seam, so I moved outside to let the sun warm the leather cover to make it more flexible. I also wore gloves and used pliers to pull the thread tight.

[zed2]

Adam,

I used Fabric & Frames (Addison) for my 300ZX leather set kit. They also recover steering wheels, look under products tab.

http://importsextreme.com/

James DeCuir <jamie@importsextreme.com> is the owner. Great guy to deal with.

Regards,

Keith

[FastWoman]

Soooo... Resurrecting an old thread...

My '78's steering wheel looks a bit shabby. It has what appears to be a wheelskins sort of cover on it. It's starting to come apart. I really don't know how the rubber/foam material appears underneath. I'm wondering about re-covering the wheel with something that looks a bit better.

Sidetracking just a bit, I also own a Miata. The PO recovered the wheel prior to my buying it, and it looks BEAUTIFUL -- as though it came from the factory. Unlike wheelskins, the leather also covers the padded parts of the spokes. I'd like to do something like that. As far as I can tell, nobody makes a kit for doing this, right? That is, nobody makes a kit that also covers the tidbits on the spokes?

I already know the leather skin on the rubber/foam of my Z's wheel has a good feel to it, but I don't know whether the leather tends to walk around on the foam. The leather on my wheel is pretty well stuck in place, but it's probably turned a bit from the way the PO first stitched it in place. Would it be worthwhile picking up a 240 fake wood wheel and leather covering that? Is the wheel diameter similar? Or should I just recover the wheel I have and hope the leather doesn't squirm around?

I'm also curious what's underneath the foam. Does anyone know? Are the finger grips molded into the frame of the wheel, so that I could strip down a wheel to the metal, build it up with something like plastidip, and then leather-wrap?

Anybody know any good tutorials out there about how to wrap the spoke tidbits? I've seen quite a few on how to wrap the main parts of the wheel.

Thanks, everyone!

[ZCurves]

Sarah,

I have a couple of steering wheels, one I covered with leather years ago, the other is prepped for a custom wooden redo. On the leather one, I covered the entire wheel in painters masking tape and then used a razor blade cut it off to create a pattern. I then applied the tape to some nice black leather, cut it out and then started sewing -tough on the hands, but the job turned out pretty well. For the wooden wheel, I have removed the old foam and had it powder coated Chassis Black, I am in the process of creating the template so that I can use a router and make a clean, smooth circle. There are a couple of places on the internet where guys have already done this work,I am just copying their steps. I plan to document everything and post it when I am done. If it turns out well, maybe I can do it for others too.