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I've had an early 80's steering wheel floating around for a few decades. I never used it because I didn't have a horn cap.
A "new" Camaro showed up in a listing at a nearby junk yard last week so went out to see what I could get, and among other things, I got a decent steering wheel, with the horn cap for $26.
BTW, this was a 1989 IROC car.
Unfortunately it has a hole in in the leather at 12 o'clock. My old Z-28 wheel has OK leather (not great) but the wheel has gotten rusty after the decades in my garage.
I did the obligatory search to see what others are doing and came up with three options.
Since I've got two to work with, I'm going to try my hand at re-wrapping one. I'm working with the one I just got from the junkyard as the leather is in much worse shape and the paint is much better.
I ordered a "kit" from Ama-zone. The leather is nice but the wrap was too wide and there was no way to stitch it up tight enough. So I've cut the original leather off and will try a had at something like what "ChrisFix" did here:
After getting the old leather off, the original under pad is in a semi-fluidic state, like tar. It sticks to everything. The next step is get it cleaned off.
Lots of pictures and more updates soon.
Last edited by esc; 09-01-2023 at 02:29 PM.
Reason: added link to reproduction wheel
I removed the tarry mess that was under the original leather using an ice scraper that I use on my windshield on cold mornings and a bunch of WD-40. It took about 10 minutes.
Now it is clean enough that I don't have to spend 10 minutes cleaning up every time I touch it.
That "tar" really is just like the beach tar that we sometimes get on the Gulf coast.
The review of the re-production wheels, that mentions that they are are thinner than the factory wheel, makes me think that they might just be plastic wrapped with leather, leaving out the foam pad that turns into tar.
When I purchased my 91 TA Vert, both the leather on the wheel and the Air Bag cover and horn buttons were in bad shape. I purchased a vinyl wheel that was perfect all around and installed it, and I'm actually not repulsed by it. It kinda feels like leather without the stitching.
I have a quote of $299 to re-leather the original wheel from Craft Customs in Rockwall, Texas......I just haven't pulled the trigger as yet.
I'm of the opinion that leather and upholstery work is actually an art form, and best left to the experts.
I'm of the opinion that leather and upholstery work is actually an art form, and best left to the experts.
I agree, but I like to do things myself whenever possible.
My first attempt will be with a $15 leather piece that is already sown into a circle. It won't have stitching on the side spokes, so it will definitely not look 100% factory correct. But I'm not going for perfection, just reasonably good looking and 100% usable. I hope to be ready to show my first attempt in a day or two. If it turns out OK, I'll post a write up of the whole process. If it turns out terribly, I'll cut it off and try something different.
One thing that I am also considering is cutting the decent leather off of my other wheel and stitching it onto this one.
I'm also thinking about carefully measuring the original leather and having it laser cut. That way it would be reproducible. It might be interesting to put together a home re-cover kit that looked like factory.
It would at least be a good excuse to get a laser engraver/cutter to put next to my 3D printer.
Use the old leather as a pattern for the best fit/look. I re-did my shifter ****, e-brake, console lid this way, but the wheel is a Chuck Pelton affair. Two in fact.
A leather hole puncher is great for the hand stitches. Id love to find a worn out steering wheel and give it a try though. Post pics when you're done.
Here is a picture with the $15 leather wrap I bought. You may be able to tell that it is way to wide for the wheel, but the circumference is about right.
I added painters tape to the back so that I could see the marks I was making.
I took a piece of tape and wrapped it around the wheel and marked both ends where they overlapped, to figure out how much extra material needed to be removed. It was almost exactly 2.75 inches. The wrap is 4" so I need to take 5/8 off of each side..or so I thought. I marked up the tape all the way around and made a sample cut about 5" long.
When I wrapped it around the wheel it looked like I had cut about 1/4 too much off. I decided to do a few preliminary stitches and see what it looked like. If I pull medium hard, I can get it close up nicely and it is very tight on the wheel( it doesn't stay that way without tying off the threads, so it is looser in the picture than when I pull it tight). I think I'll re-mark the tape, leaving a hair more and cut the rest. If I butcher this piece too bad, another is only $15, so I'll start over.
BTW, I cut the leather with a box cutter and a straight edge, on a 2x4.
Learning as I go...
Last edited by esc; 09-02-2023 at 04:42 PM.
Reason: typos
Also, a Sailmakers Palm makes all the difference when stitching. The needles that come with the $15 leather are a little short to hold correctly with the palm, but it works.
Also, during my first test stitches, the painters tape ripped while stretching the leather around the wheel. It won't work for aligning the stitches. I'll have to come up with something else. I may just use a 1/4" spacer and locate the stitch holes as I go.
I used the original leather from the e-brake to mark the holes on the new piece. I used two curved needles, one for each side the the leather. On the original leather piece the holes are set back the 3/8 from the edge and about 1/4 of that is folded over so the cutline is hidden under.. Maybe the OE leather on the wheel is similar. Are you going to use any padding under the leather?
The wheel leather is folded over like that around the spokes, but not anywhere else. The holes are only about 1/8 (or less) from the edge.
I'm not using any padding this time. I may on my next attempt, but the way the original padding turned to tar has me questioning whether it is needed.
Sailmakers Palm: I got mine as part of a kit, but I'm not sure where. If you search Amazon several come up. Most look just like mine. It looks like it is made from leather sown together with a flattened, lead, musket ball with golf ball dimples hammered into it. I understand that experienced sailmakers will custom make their own to fit their hand...I'm not there yet.
There should be something better than the foam padding from 30+ years ago. Maybe ill look on amazon.
Hardly ever see a third gen in the JYs here in the so.cal either. Those days are long gone.
There should be something better than the foam padding from 30+ years ago. Maybe ill look on amazon.
I'm sure there is, but I'm not sure I want it. So many leather wheels get the leather all twisted up and it often seems to be related to the pad going bad. Is it even needed? I'll let you know after I go without it for a while. The history of my car is one of removing extraneous things that are not required. So my motto (today) is, "when in doubt, leave it out."
Definitely not needed, its probably for comfort i think, but some dont like the skinny feel without it and our steering wheels are pretty small dia compared to later model cars.
Definitely not needed, its probably for comfort i think, but some dont like the skinny feel without it and our steering wheels are pretty small dia compared to later model cars.
Good point.
A little progress today. After all the prep-work of applying the tape to the inside of the leather and carefully laying out the planned cuts, only to end up cutting a little too much in the sample area, I decided to use a different tactic.
First, I've decided that the tape was (mostly) a failed experiment. It worked fine for laying out the pattern of the spokes, but was overkill for most of the cutting.
Second, using a foot long 2x4, a box cutter and a straight edge works great for getting nice straight, easy, cuts.
Since my "precision" cut yesterday was not great, I decided to just eye ball it and am very happy with the result. The first piece that I cut off (today) I used as a width measurement for the rest. I just set it on top of the main piece, lined it up with the edge and used it as a guide for placing the straight edge. I had the whole thing cut out in about 10 minutes. Pictures to follow...
I stalled on the difficulty of sewing the leather. It is really hard to get the needle through. The sailor's palm makes it possible, but it turns out that I'm not very good at getting the holes in a straight line, while using the palm. I'm sure an experienced sail maker would whip right though this, but that isn't me. I think that I need some sort of jig that will hold the leather in place and help me space out the holes evenly, so that I can create the holes. Then remove it from the jig and sew it on.
I'm also considering starting over with a smaller piece of leather, they can be had in several sizes, and comes with holes preinstalled.
I've also been wondering about replacing the gross ooze, that may have once been a rubber pad, with double sided mounting take, the thick (1/8") stuff. It could add a little padding and help hold everything together. Maybe?
I have not abandoned this project, it just pushed to back of the work bench, for the Winter, while I try to decide on the next step.
Last edited by esc; 03-30-2024 at 06:51 AM.
Reason: typo
Sorry to hear that.
I'm guessing its one of those things that you would have to just do many of them & learn the hard knocks.
Would be so cool to see how they were done at whatever supplier did these for GM back in the 80's Must have been some special machine no doubt? Rewrapping a wheel is is probably like upholstery at JS interiors. Justin makes it look so easy on the bitchen rides TV show, but we all know that is an art form to say the least.
Since the generic leather wrap "kits" are pretty cheap on amazon, I assume that they are machine cut/holes for mass production. I've been wondering if a laser cutter would work on leather. Might smell like a BBQ, but if it worked and the program was shared, that would help lots of people.
The leather kit from amazon seem to use wider cut of leather for our thinner wheels. Maybe trim it down and re-do the holes.
I used these little hole punchers i got on thE-bay. They're cheap and work well for making the holes to stitch leather. Ive re-done a couple e-brk handles, my console lid and shifter ball with these, but no wheel yet.
08-31-2023, 05:03 PM
