Turns out I bought a steering wheel on eBay and assumed it will fit... My luck it was not exactly the one for my car.
Wondering if anyone can shed some light, I still want to use it as my original one is cracked. The problem is that the back side of the is too big and my control (lights, blinkers, whipping blades). I attached some pics to see if anyone knows how to work around this hiccup.
Thanks Ital!
Sometimes the answer is right in front of us and yet we cant see it. That is a brilliant and inexpensive idea!
I'll try it out and post pictures once done.
Turns out I could not swap the hubs between this 2 steering wheels, the one with the bigger hub has an adapter bolted and the other has it welded. The adapter is on the way of the blinker pin release and is also missing the hole where the pin goes.
Unfortunately I have to buy another steering wheel, anyone has one? BTW I'm selling the one I can't use (in case you are interested)
Cheers,
Luis
Ps: The pop rivets for the short hub are rare (too long) you won't find them in many stores...
Little update, I tried to find the rivets however no luck at all, they are 1/8 diameter and 7/8 grip length, I searched up and down and they are just too long.
Then I decided to strip the paint and remove the rust, I coated it with a flat clear finish and I'm very pleased with how it turned out, now the steering wheel stands out.
Has anyone repaired a crack on the steering wheel? If so let me know!
ok curiosity has had me doing research .... here is what i found ... just gonna cut and paste what i thought might help... i will seperate ideas
If it's real wood, I'd sand the finish down to bare wood. Then I'd build up the gap with your choice of bondo/jb weld/epoxy and leave it a little bit shallow. Cover that with some wood filler/putty (it comes in different colors, pick one closest to the color of the sanded wood) to fill the last little bit of gap and sand it smooth then stain the color of your choice. Then about 9 layers of clear varnish with steel wool in between each coat. Then some lemon pledge for shine. If you don't want slick and shiny, instead of staining and clear varnish, use something like linseed oil without a clear.
JB weld and add stain to the jb to get the lightest color then draw the wood grain in and finish with clear . If you want the grain cut it in with razor blade.
I've never done a wood wheel with a big gap like that either. But if I was going to, that seems about the best way to keep the repair looking inconspicuous. Treat it like a nail hole and use the epoxy or whatever to close the gap up to nail hole hieght. If you do a good enough job on the stain, nobody will notice the imperfection. I would make sure the putty is compatible with whatever filler you use (jb/bondo/epoxy), you know, make sure it'll stick so it doesn't just lift off soon/later.
It's not real wood. Use an epoxy after cleaning in the gaps really well. as it tacks off, make a grain pattern in it. You'll need to be good, or you'll be sanding to blend it in, then you'll need to put the grain back in a lot of it.
I doubt that it's real wood. Wood doesn't crack across the grain like that, and there's a hole running parallel to the steel core that wouldn't be there in wood. Of course, it might be plastic-impregnated wood, that process was invented in WWII or a bit earlier.
If you sand it, do it over a large sheet of plastic and save the sanding dust. Mix the dust with clear epoxy to fill the gap and voila, color match!
Pretty sure thats plastic wheel, and you could always test it with a needle , heat it up red hot and stick it in the back of the wheel somewhere, if it melts its plastic.
If you live where it gets cold don't expect jb weld too work. The expansion and contraction rates of the material in the wheel and the jb weld are different. You'll finish with the project and it will look great then the first night you get really cold you see a crack and one side of the repair or the other.
I'm filling most of the gap with Marson flexible repair compound, it should allow the repair to expand and contract without breaking. It's a two part compound that you mix like body filler except it's mixed 1:1 It's mixed until it's a light blue color. I used my finger to force the repair compound into the notch, to just below the edge of the wood veneer. I'm filling the last bit of gap on the wheel repair with Elmers ultimate glue, it's almost like wood glue but a brown color, the neat thing is it expands when it dries, it also can be sanded and once sanded it accepts stain.
that should get some ideas going.... Matt
edit... lots of guys talk about pc-7 ... type of epoxy
