I just bought a pretty nice 68 Steering Wheel off ebay. Can I restore it myself or should I leave it to the Professionals? Only 1 crack on top. The underside of all 3 spokes are cracked and some "ring" marks on the left side. See the pics. Thanks, Scott Hill

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Scott...There's no reason why you can't do it yourself. Eastwood and POR both make a little kit with two part, sandable, epoxy to fill cracks. You grind out the a V shaped groove, with a file or a dremel, around the crack, then fill it, and sand it flat. You may have to repeat the process to build it up, to get it flat, sorta like doing body work. Then scuff, clean, the rest of the wheel and spray it with a high gloss enamel. I'd give a shot if I had one in nice condition like yours. I couldn't find one good enough to restore, so I bought it done.

I've used the two part epoxy from WalMart with great success. It's less than $3.00.
Also, you can polish the bakelite material that the wheel is made out of using progressively finer sandpaper, then a compound like Mothers mag and aluminum polish.

This wheel will have to be painted black. Is something out of a spray can an option? Is it supposed to be high gloss? Mostly I'm afraid of screwing it up and having to find another one and we know how expensive that is. It sounds to me like this is just a matter of taking your time to get it right. Anyone else had any experience doing this? Scott

Scott, we are doing a 68 wheel for a customer right now, same cracks as yours. Big thing to mention also is it needs to be cleaned real good because of oils, amor all, etc... Like the other guys said, dremel works good, files, etc. We shoot with a urethane when we are done. Used a couple coats of primer over the epoxy also. Just basic bodywork.

Micky, it sounds like I could fix it but maybe have a professional paint it. Is there a special cleaner you use? What type of epoxy are you using? Scott

Products I used for this job are, cleanup- a heavy purple cleaner. Wax and Grease remover/solvent. Por-15 epoxy to fix cracks, PPG Omni 2K primer (2coats on crack areas, 1 light on rest). PPG DCC 9700 single stage. We have about 4.5 hours into the job from beginning to end. It was almost identical to all of the cracks in yours, pics dont really show how nice the wheel came out.

Micky, What paint did you use on the shroud?
James

Lucked out there, he has a NOS one. I would probably use some lacquer on it becuase of the grain, or over reduce the single stage if I had to do one.

Thanks for the info. I am going to give it a shot. Scott

Scott, good luck with the steering wheel. Let us know how it turned out.
James

Thanks and will do. Scott

Put the turkey away Scott and Get Er Done:thumbsup: we have faith in you:D

I've just repaired my wheel and will be painting it this weekend so this is a very timely post. And yep, it's basic bodywork, only on a smaller scale. I hope mine turns out as good as shown here.

Is the top of the horn shroud painted black like the sides? All the paint on mine was worn off.

Is the top of the horn shroud painted black like the sides? All the paint on mine was worn off.
Yep.
BillL

Scott,

If I can do it, you can...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the shroud should be painted satin black not high gloss.
James

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the shroud be painted satin black?
James

:yes:

so the wheel is gloss and the shroud is satin? How do you duplicate the chrome/silver highlights on the shroud? Scott

so the wheel is gloss and the shroud is satin? How do you duplicate the chrome/silver highlights on the shroud? Scott
The 68 shroud was chromed like the dash, then masked off and painted what ever color the wheel was.

I was always wondering what to paint it with. I mean so that it doesnt get sticky in the hot sun or something. The epoxy I assume doesnt?

Doh!

so the wheel is gloss and the shroud is satin? How do you duplicate the chrome/silver highlights on the shroud? ScottThis was the first thing I did on my car. I was able to strip the paint off my shroud, and the chrome was fine (actually, I thought it was like a polished aluminum at the time). Then I cut thin strips of paint tape with a papercutter to mask off the raised edges that were to remain chrome. I coated the whole thing with a self-etching primer (3-coats) and semigloss paint (2 coats) that ended up being too glossy. I'm sure it's not as good as others, but it's worth a try if you want to do it yourself. In the middle picture, it shows an example of the tape strips before I decided to strip the whole shroud.