Instead of asking a question, I thought I'd share a successful resto project.

Yesterday, I removed my SS steering wheel for resto. I have the optional 3 spoke cushion grip design. The black paint is worn off from 31 years of use, but the brushed aluminum spokes are in great shape. I took it to a reputable body shop and the manager told me it should be painted in a laquer for the best durability. Unfortunately, the shop did not use or have any laquer products, and said all shops were the same. He recommended using a laquer spray bomb and doing it myself. Not afraid of a challenge, I trotted off to get my supplies.

I went to Auto Paint Supply at 5959 Shawson Drive, #10, Mississauga for my supplies. Phone # (905) 670-5900. This place is a Carquest affiliate store. I bought SEM Flexible Primer, Color Flo Gloss Black Laquer and 3M Tape, totalling $21.21. Pretty good so far.

I washed the wheel with hot soap and water and noticed that the remnants of the paint were rubbing off with sufficient thumb pressure. I then used a household scouring pad ( the green kind, not that coarse. It looks like a Scotchbrite but is a little softer ) and removed the rest of the paint, leaving me with light green rubber. This took about an hour. After drying thoroughly, I masked off the aluminum strip on the side of the wheel with the 3M tape. The tape is a little wider than the strip, so I lined up one side of the tape with one edge of the strip. I pushed the tape down with my fingernail and made a slight groove in the tape where the other edge of the aluminum was, and trimmed it with an exacto knife. I primed it with 2 coats of primer and let dry for about 9 hours. I then dry sanded lightly with 400 grit paper, and wiped the wheel down with a damp cloth. Now came the moment of truth. I very carefully applied the first coat of laquer, and after 10-15 minutes, applied the second coat. Beautiful results!! No dust, evenly coated, and wow, even professional results like the can said! I'm looking forward to summer to test the durability of my work, but from a looks standpoint right now, I'm VERY happy, which says a lot, because I'm VERY finicky. I hope this may help someone else.

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Dan Orgill
" It's not the heat, it's the stupidity. "

I've done the same thing, with good results,on the cushion grip wheel and also fixed a cracked wood wheel, mixed up a combo of paints, and came up with almost the correct walnut color for it and put a clear coat on it.And when it got dusty, wiped it down with the citrus furniture polish, the liquid type.Man that thing shined. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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1972 Malibu (1 st. car) Project waiting to happen
Team Chevelle # 427
A.C.E.S. # 1282

I actually won't get to refurbishing my wheel till I start on the rest of the interior, but do you guys have any advice on dealing with cracks and/or larger seperations? I was thinking of maybe filling them in with some epoxy or something first..

Dan

Dan,POR-15 sells a resto kit (a VERY complete kit) for about 70 bucks.I'll be putting a simulated walnut (1968) wheel on my 69 fairly soon.The repro of this wheel is about 250$ and a pro-resto on my wheel is about the same...I'll be doing it myself after reading the lead post...thanks to the positive words about "DIY" on wheel rebop ! Shawn. oh yeah, www.por15.com (http://www.por15.com) is the place .

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Dan,also saw a PC-7 kit in the eastwood catalog...includes chemicals and a nice book (from what the ad shows seemingly).I have seen 3 or 4 car mags over the years restore some of their wheels with this exact kit...seems pretty good also..about 30 bucks I think at eastwood co.I don't remeber,but either por-15 or eastwood sells a clear,brushable poly paint for just this type of deal..and claims it dries SMOOTH and hard as rock in 3 days or so.I saw Jeff Tann restore a mustang wheel in a magazine some years ago...he used regular pigment from a wood stain (the stuff I think on the bottom of an unstirred brandnew can)and sponged it to get the wood color/grain he liked,over a plastic wheel-then he shot a satin poly clear over that-it looked great-more food for thought there.Let us know what and how yours turns out ! Shawn

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If you're working on a black wheel, I found an inexpensive little trick. '71 Malibu wheel I recently got to replace the original cracked one had a couple very small cracks. I mixed some regular two-part epoxy and added some black nigrozine powder (from a vintage crank phonograph project I once did). It dried very shiny and jet black. Blended right in with the wheel after it was polished. I presume you could sand/mill it like any epoxy.
I've also mixed this with self leveling silicone sealer to recoat my spark plug wire seperators. The powder mixes with about anything. And you can add enough to make anything nice jet black.

Well, I'm not sure where I'll find my supply of nigrozine powder, but it seems you found a solution to one of the issues i plan i dealing with eventually. I've got '70 SS style black wheel and am pretty doubtful whatever filler i use will match up- guess i'll just end up stripping the entire wheel and repaint..

Dan

It's not your regular car-part place, but www.antiquephono.com (http://www.antiquephono.com) or(607)278-6218, is where I got the nigrosene powder stain. A small jar that holds about two tablespoons was $3.50 (a little goes a long way).