TOPIC: Steering wheel restoration

I am looking for someone to restore a steering wheel. It has a lot of the typical cracks. The vintage is 1958. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

Randy

Hi Randy - a picture is always very helpful in questions like this.

Look on the Web - there are professional companies that specialize in antique steering wheel restoration for cars and boats. Be warned though - the service is $$$$$. Generally these companies will patch up a wheel then make a mold of it. Then all of the old hardened plastic or rubber is broken off the steel frame. The frame is sandblasted to remove rust, or made from completely new materials. The new frame then has new material cast onto it using the mold from the original.

People do "restore" (it's actually repairing) steering wheels with epoxy or other fillers, like Bondo. They sand it and repaint. They can look pretty good - but more often than not - new cracks will appear or the old ones will come back. Once the old material has lost it's ability to flex without cracking, there is no way to revive it.

Unless you absolutely must keep the original - try to find a replacement - or even get a different helm and wheel made of aluminum. Many vintage aluminum wheels are very attractive - and when they are refinished, they don't crack.

Good luck with your search.

Bruce G

Here is a picture. Thank you for the comments. I have repair in mind.

Here is steering wheel Resto I did for my 64 Deluxe...

Really nice job on that wheel Andrew - it looks sharp.

Fill it and paint it, if it comes back bad then you can always do the expensive route later

I had mine painted.

I have a cool Volrath I got for free but color is terrible but no damage so I bet it would look good painted, what type of paint do you use on that rubber?

I'm not an expert, but I recommend something that gets HARD. I used several coats of polyurethane clear coat to have a hard finish. Steering wheels get a lot wear.

I have an aluminium wheel too so guess I get to experiment

My wheel it's not the best but it's a merc wheel.

I'll check with my buddy that painted my wheel, but I'm pretty sure he used an additive used for painting rubber bumper covers. I think the paint was urethane.

Cheers

Bill

We grind out and open up all cracks and fill them with 2 part epoxy putty. They are then primed with epoxy primer and painted with single stage, two part, DuPont Imron polyurethane.

Here are a few that we have done.

Larry
Vintage Boatworks

commando wrote:

My wheel it's not the best but it's a merc wheel.

That's one of the most classy wheels of the time period Bill, IMHO. If you can have someone shoot it with Imron as Larry suggests, you won't have to worry about it again. Although kinda "pricey", that stuff wears like iron! (Not to be attempted without the proper equipment, however.)

What the hell is Imron?I can apply it if I know what it is.anyway my merc set is also most complete just waiting for steering connection and my control and fuel tank.This whole set cost me almost $2000. I'm not a rich guy but who say this is a cheap hobby.ok I know now what Imron is but I think I just like it as it is it show the age of the wheel like my engine it's all original .

Thats a beautiful set and $2,000 you could not buy a new motor only for that and thanks for the paint info, that wheel has to be bright red again.

Are you sure it is suppose to be red? Cause that wheel is that color and it's look original.anyway i got my original merc control and my gas tank today hopefully my steering connection come next week so I can hook it up and start her.