Steering wheel restoration.

[hls30.com]

I am sewing up a move from Savannah to Saint  Mary's, figuring out my garage and storage space, and have my white 'Vert in the air with her Auto on the floor and a 5 speed waiting to go in...probably 60-90 days...Prepping and painting the spokes and hub is about the same, the area with the real changes is the rim-and I go further than anyone I have seen on the horn connections-It will all be in there!

 

[ZCarFever]

57 minutes ago, hls30.com said:

I am sewing up a move from Savannah to Saint  Mary's, figuring out my garage and storage space, and have my white 'Vert in the air with her Auto on the floor and a 5 speed waiting to go in...probably 60-90 days...Prepping and painting the spokes and hub is about the same, the area with the real changes is the rim-and I go further than anyone I have seen on the horn connections-It will all be in there!

 

?

[87mj]

I owned a '73 in about 1978/79.  I don't ever remember seeing any unrestored steering wheel that was as blond as those in the brochures.  They all had that cherry tint to them. I sanded my '70 wheel and refinished it with poly.  The cherry verses the blond streaks had much more contrast than I remembered so I applied a coat of dye over my poly to "cherry" it up a little.  It is now pretty close to how my factory '71 wheel looks.

Also, the shift knob never matched the wheel.

Does anyone else remember differently?

[Av8ferg]

Well, I’ll add my 2cents since I recently went down this road. It’s hard to believe the original resin portion of the wheels was that light. I stripped mine all the way down until the natural color of the resin was consistent. It looks almost like straw when sanded down. I put polyurethane on after and it did picked up the Cherry color with just that. Do not attempt to stain as you’ll likely get a very dark steering wheel.
In the pic here, I had completed the spokes refurbish and only sanded (lots of sanding BTW) the resin. You can see it’s pretty light. Again this is before the poly went on. I put 5 coats of poly on after and the color stayed fairly consistent between coats. I wet sanded between coat to make sure it was smooth as glass. Polyethylene is very thin and can easily get uneven due to orientation of the wheel during the application. I tried spray and brush poly and the brush technique is way more consistent and less difficult to make right.




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[87mj]

That looks very good.  But in my opinion, it doesn't look correct.  As odd as this will sound, I don't think the wheel on shipped cars was ever as light as depicted in the brochures.

I remember mine being about the same color as what is on my '71.  At the time, that car was about 5 years old. All the cars I have seen in person throughout the years had a cherry cast to the wheel.

[240260280]

@87mj   Here is a photo of a 70 freshly landed in Canada ~ June/July 1970. It has a straw coloured wheel.

 

[siteunseen]

1 hour ago, Av8ferg said:

Well, I’ll add my 2cents since I recently went down this road. It’s hard to believe the original resin portion of the wheels was that light. I stripped mine all the way down until the natural color of the resin was consistent. It looks almost like straw when sanded down. I put polyurethane on after and it did picked up the Cherry color with just that. Do not attempt to stain as you’ll likely get a very dark steering wheel.
In the pic here, I had completed the spokes refurbish and only sanded (lots of sanding BTW) the resin. You can see it’s pretty light. Again this is before the poly went on. I put 5 coats of poly on after and the color stayed fairly consistent between coats. I wet sanded between coat to make sure it was smooth as glass. Polyethylene is very thin and can easily get uneven due to orientation of the wheel during the application. I tried spray and brush poly and the brush technique is way more consistent and less difficult to make right.




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When I did my horn pad I put Vaseline on DATSUN lightly with a Q-tip then sprayed it satin black.  Wiped off the jelly then went over the DATSUN with a metallic silver oil based Sharpie paint pen.  Looks onederfull.

[hls30.com]

Don't worry,  While pictures can change with age too I have a NOS one to judge by, and one that was wrapped within a week of being sold-between those two that have hardly seen the light of day in nearly 50 years, and identifying the resin used- I believe I the original color is pretty much locked down   Look really closely at the "blond" in your wheel-it is the wood, not the resin...  The wood might be a little lighter than original from sanding, but  resin does three things with uv exposure and heat cycles ... give up its original chemistry, shrink, and darken. 

Edited August 24, 2019 by hls30.com

[jayhawk]

My '73 when new in '73 (from a Kodachrome slide that was digitized a couple of years ago)

plus s

 

From  a 1971 or '72 brochure.  Looks like a photo of the '70 steering wheel. (just scanned in today)

3

 

From a 11-72 brochure for the '73 240Z (scanned today)

Edited August 24, 2019 by jayhawk

[Clint Bizzle]

I know this thread is a little old but I just finished my wheel and I believe it turned out pretty good and to me looks pretty close to the brechures that were posted on here. 

Anyways If anyone is interested in the full story behind my 71 240z I have a thread going here:

https://www.zcar.com/threads/240z-worth-saving-front-end-damage.421423/

 

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Clint Bizzle

[240260280]

WOW Nice light wood colour!  Love it!

[dutchzcarguy]

At first you did this:

And then desided to go original!  Yep i like your wheel! You've  done a good job on it! 👍