Steering wheel restoration

[jellobob777]

check the CT Z site there is a bunch of info under restoration tips (Steering wheel)

Edited April 29, 2010 by jellobob777

[Inf]

These steering wheels are wood looking plastic right? I over sanded one and it turned white pretty quick. If its plastic, why furniture oils instead of straight up urethane or epoxy clear coat?

Actually, a while back the lead designer of the S30 stated to a member (Kats) here that it was not just plastic. It is actually a composite material of real wood impregnated with a resin.

See this post, 8th paragraph from the top:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7801#34

FWIW, I didn't stain mine at all. I did this 6 years ago, and used no funky stains or oils or anything. I started out with a Scotch Brite to take all the buildup of 31 years of driver's hands off, then sanded it a bit. Afterwards, I masked the spokes and sprayed some urethane clear coat over the rim, and it turned out great.

It looks very red in this picture, but it's a much darker color in person. The flash really changes the appearance of colors sometimes.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Inf
fixing link

[conedodger]

First of all, I want to say what a great search function this forum has. I wanted to restore my steering wheels (I have a spare) so I clicked on car forums then interior then searched steering wheel restore. I came up with 5 threads of which this was the second and most relevant.

Over the last two days, I have masked off the rims on two steering wheels - bead blasted the spoke and hub areas - primed and then painted the spoke and hub area satin black - then cleaned the rim with Scotch Brite and Joy dishwashing liquid - then after they dried I gave each rim a coat of gloss Marine Spar Varnish. Over the next week or so, I will either wet sand or steel wool the varnished surface and give each two to three more coats.

No pictures yet but I want to reaffirm what others have said; there is no need to stain no matter how 'white' or 'grey' your wheel rim has gotten. Just clean it well with the Scotch Brite and some kind of cleaner, rinse well, hang to dry for an hour or so then paint on the varnish. It comes out a deep reddish wood look. All that age just disappears.

Pics to follow...