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Steering Wheel Restoration
Hi all
Ive been stumped on how to restore or just tidy up my steering wheel.,
Refer to my pic. Wheelmis 50 s vintage, European. Structural ok I guess. There are a few cracks and of course worn off paint. The material is some sort of tough stuff .. dont know what it is ...
Im thinking of filling the cracks with Epoxy then Sanding and the painting. If so have no idea what to use.
Randal
steerig wheel restoration
Quote:
Originally Posted by
soundman
On the matter of filling and stabilising ...... gentlemen, you need to become aquainted with marine epoxy ..... this stuff comes thin, runny and unfilled ..... it is specifcally designed to get into fine cracks and the like.
Mostly you then thicken it with an appropriate filler ..... filler can vary with your needs.
You can make anything from a penetrating, surface bonding, sealer undercoat right thru to a heavy paste bog out of this stuff ..... AND it is inert and impervious where bog is not.
These marine epoxies make the general commercial and retail epoxies look sad and you have much more control. They also bond better to a wider range of materials.
Auto bog is bassed on the same resin commonly used to make fibreglass .... that resin has a fairly narrow material compatability range and realy is not a particularly good adhesive.
There are some surface conformal coatings, bassed on this family of epoxies ..... clear coats, bar toppings, fake marble and pearlescents. These would make excelent steering wheel coatings.
of course the base resins can be coloured and have metalics and peraescents added.
For a steerinbg wheel top coat you need a UV stabilised resin.
cheers
I just put a call out to Aldax moulds asking for the appropriate materials to make or repair a new wheel for my MK.1 Sunbeam Alpine - will keep you posted after reply- my wheel is the wire spoked type and ATM don't know how the spokes are attached to the rim or hub