Steering Wheel Makeover

[rv6aflyer]

Here are some pictures showing my steering wheel makeover for my '72.  I wanted something a little different but still keeping some tie in to the original rather than go aftermarket.

The first picture shows what it looked like when I bought the car.  Covered in some weird wrap and lots of rust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted the redone wheel to be thicker so I wrapped two layers of felt around the original wheel to make it about 1/4" bigger in diameter.

Finally, I wanted it wrapped in leather.  I considered Wheelskins, but I wanted the outer part of the spoke to be covered as well.  It took me a while, but I finally found a local place that sold leather remnants big enough to go around the whole wheel.  I used some smaller pieces to develop the templates for the spoke areas as well as to determine the width I wanted.  I made myself a little hole punch using brass tubing and punched all the holes.  The lacing is RealleatheR craft lace which I bought at JoAnn fabrics.  The spokes are painted the same color as the exterior of the car to put just a little pop into my otherwise all black interior.  I spent waaaayyy too much time on this, but it IS a hobby and I'm pretty happy with the results.

[psdenno]

Wow!!  Nice job on the stitching.  How many hours invested?

Dennis

[wheee!]

Shipping info? I need to send you my wheel...

[rv6aflyer]

The final lacing only took a couple of hours, but I'm sure I have over 20 hours into this little project.  But I enjoyed figuring out how to do the leather work.  The materials themselves were pretty cheap.  It was figuring out what to do and making numerous patterns to make sure the final leather cut would work that took the time.

[Patcon]

Looks great! Well done...

[FreshZ]

I re-wrapped my steering wheel with one of those regular steering wheel covers (with lace design) and the foam from some toy nunchuks from the dollar store. came out quite nice.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[FreshZ]

then I used some durable thread and just sewed the steering wheel cover closed.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[FreshZ]

Did you also refurb the horn pad?

Sent from my LG-D850 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[rv6aflyer]

I didn't do anything to the horn pad outside of cleaning it.  I did have to sand blast the plates used to make the horn's electrical connection and then re-plate them.

[siteunseen]

A silver colored paint pen worked good on "DATSUN" in the middle of the horn pad for me. Thanks again @psdenno

[psdenno]

My pleasure.  Silver Sharpie - works good, lasts a long time.

Dennis

[Zedyone_kenobi]

That is simply outstanding...It looks incredible.