Steering wheel restoration

[MrJD]

Well, I decided to take a shot at restoring a wheel as opposed to buying a new fancy one. About to run out the door, so this will be short, but heavy on pictures. Test fitting the cover.


Wheel with a cover sewn on. Bought the cover online and it didn't even remotely fit. Had to cut it way down and cut it into a single long strip as it was too big. You will note the wheel has some rust on it and the metal is, overall, a bit over the hill.


damage on the wheel
I used stuffed paper to fill this in, works great


cover


sanded down the paint, appears to have black primer.



painted


ended up kinda hammer finished, I like it.


done painting


paint in the signature

Took a nail and carved the paint out


Wanted to paint the signature yellow, but there was just no way. So, I just used a black marker to fill it in


Went with yellow twine


bent a needle to sew up the final seam at the top




I think it turned out pretty darn well for my first attempt ever, lol

[RRoller123]

looks good, and if you want you can get paint in the Ferrero insignia, just wipe it on with a q-tip or small brush and immediately wipe off the excess with a rag and a little thinner. Works great!

[MrJD]

looks good, and if you want you can get paint in the Ferrero insignia, just wipe it on with a q-tip or small brush and immediately wipe off the excess with a rag and a little thinner. Works great!

already tried... on the back of the wheel. Takes the shine off the clearcoat. Metallic paints are not friendly with wiping of any form. Even carding it off would screw up the shine. :\

[RRoller123]

That's too bad, it adds a little bling. I did it on the wiper stalk arm too, in white. Makes it look brand new.

[btoran]

nice job. it looks like a completely different steering wheel.

[Redline]

looks good, and if you want you can get paint in the Ferrero insignia, just wipe it on with a q-tip or small brush and immediately wipe off the excess with a rag and a little thinner. Works great!

already tried... on the back of the wheel. Takes the shine off the clearcoat. Metallic paints are not friendly with wiping of any form. Even carding it off would screw up the shine. :\

What about a water-based paint for the lettering? Wipe it off without a solvent?

[MrJD]

Its kinda tough... I know I could buy something along those lines and make it work... especially now that the paint is close to completely cured. The easiest thing to do is get a rollerball paint pen and fill it in that way. BUT, the black is kinda growing on me. The major contrast between the black and silver makes it really stand out. As good as it looks sitting here in my lap, I'm kinda afraid to mess with it!

and though yellow is the accent color on my red car, I don't want to take it too far.
http://youtu.be/X6WHBO_Qc-Q

[RRoller123]

I think I remember I may have used red Rustoleum and wiped it off with a clean cloth, no solvent at all. I will find a pic.