Steering wheel renovation

[Bryan Boyle]

Just spitballing...anyone here in the states know of or have dealt with a firm who does steering wheel restoration?  Specifically, recovering...have an original TC and an S2 wheel...aluminum in good condition, as well as the hub...but could stand to be recovered.

Just for information, at this point...have other more pressing tasks to attend to...but thought I'd ask...

[kram350kram]

I was in the same boat too, other things more pressing, however, I stitched on a new leather cover, did it over a week or so, boring like watching paint dry. Could never find a shop to do it so thought I would give it a go. Got the cover from Amazon. One thing I did learn was to pull the thread tightly and use a large clamp to keep the thread taut between sessions. Took four days on and off, about an hour each time. Tough part was getting around the spokes, but it looks just as good as the factory cover.

[BDA]

Found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sStxk4mv_DY

There are lots of steering wheel restoration places. Most seem to do plastic wheels but some may do leather. Looking up “leather steering wheel restoration”, most of hits seem to want to show you how to do it so with the proper needle and materials, it may not be that hard.

[4129R]

I bought a leather kit from China on eBay and got a horse saddlery to do the stitching.

The result was cheap and impressive.

[Pfreen]

I covered mine with a wheelskins leather cover.  I also use their gearshift leather cover.
The only thing is to carefully measure your wheel to order the correct size.  I think both look great.

[EuropaTC]

I also did mine with a cover from Ebay UK and as Pfreen says, the only difficulty is getting the correct diameter/length for the leather. It's not a deal breaker, you can cut to size yourself at the end join, but it's obviously easier to get it right first time.

This was my first effort after watching Youtube videos and initially I thought I'd re-do it to get a bit more tension in the leather but after driving it...  well, the date on the photo is 2015 and 8 yrs later it's still waiting for the remake !

Brian

[cazman]

Has anyone gone over the top of the old leather? I wouldn't mind if mine was a bit thicker.

[EuropaTC]

Yes, the Elan wheel above has the cover over the original leather.

Two reasons, firstly the original was worn but intact, so I like to keep as much originality as I can. Secondly, I also wanted it a touch thicker and the covering I used has a slight give which makes it easy to stretch but also gives a tactile feeling. I used double side tape to hold it in place while starting off, just in case it slipped on the original shiny leather at the top. Although that picture is 8yrs old, it's pretty much the same now.

Brian

[Pfreen]

Mine is over the old cover.