My second 1965 Dodge Dart.
Since I had no 1965 steering wheel to restore, just that 13.5 inch aftermarket steering wheel, I had to do something. I went to a nearby junkyard and picked one from a 1964 station wagon. Same steering wheel. A little different horn button emblem. And it had no horn ring. But, horn rings can be found many places on ebay, so that was not so hard to get. It is a little bent, and it needs to be polished and straightened and it should be fine. Not sure how to straighten it, maybe someone who read this have a tip to give.
The steering wheel I found was cracked a lot, even hairline cracks.
For the hairline cracks I have used Loctite 420. It is a very thin crazy glue, and in the moment I press a little on the bottle and it comes out where the crack is, it goes all the way into the crack and hardens. On the little wider crack, I used regular crazy glue, and for the biggest cracks I used Loctite Heavy Duty Epoxy, Quick Set. The last one worked fine, except it hardens so fast that I did not have time to so many cracks until it was too hard. But, I had and still have plenty of it, so it was not an issue making another chunk of it for more cracks.
Since I have never restored a steering wheel before it has taken a lot of time. I have watched youtube movies and used some of their tips, and used some of my own ideas. Among other things I felt using a Dremel to remove excess epoxy was not the best option for me. I have one, and tried it, but felt I had more control with a regular file.
Since the steering wheel was cracked, I had it sort of in my mind that it would be very brittle, and that maybe pieces would fall off just by me handling it. But, I am surprised how strong it still is.
The cracks goes around the steering wheel ring, but it was also a lot of cracks on the outside of the ring that went length wise. A lot of these length wise cracks were the hair line cracks I mentioned earlier, and it was very convenient to be able to fix them with that Loctite 420. I may look for another old cracked steering wheel to have as a spare.
I have sprayed the steering wheel with primer, but not taken a picture of that yet. It showed quite a bit of not to good sanding, so I need to sand more, and fill up a very few places with a little regular bondo, and I should be able to spray more primer on, before I spray the paint and clear coat.
More pics will come, and text update of how it goes. And a final picture of the result. It is rather rewarding to get things done, a little by little.
Bill
Since I had no 1965 steering wheel to restore, just that 13.5 inch aftermarket steering wheel, I had to do something. I went to a nearby junkyard and picked one from a 1964 station wagon. Same steering wheel. A little different horn button emblem. And it had no horn ring. But, horn rings can be found many places on ebay, so that was not so hard to get. It is a little bent, and it needs to be polished and straightened and it should be fine. Not sure how to straighten it, maybe someone who read this have a tip to give.
The steering wheel I found was cracked a lot, even hairline cracks.
For the hairline cracks I have used Loctite 420. It is a very thin crazy glue, and in the moment I press a little on the bottle and it comes out where the crack is, it goes all the way into the crack and hardens. On the little wider crack, I used regular crazy glue, and for the biggest cracks I used Loctite Heavy Duty Epoxy, Quick Set. The last one worked fine, except it hardens so fast that I did not have time to so many cracks until it was too hard. But, I had and still have plenty of it, so it was not an issue making another chunk of it for more cracks.
Since I have never restored a steering wheel before it has taken a lot of time. I have watched youtube movies and used some of their tips, and used some of my own ideas. Among other things I felt using a Dremel to remove excess epoxy was not the best option for me. I have one, and tried it, but felt I had more control with a regular file.
Since the steering wheel was cracked, I had it sort of in my mind that it would be very brittle, and that maybe pieces would fall off just by me handling it. But, I am surprised how strong it still is.
The cracks goes around the steering wheel ring, but it was also a lot of cracks on the outside of the ring that went length wise. A lot of these length wise cracks were the hair line cracks I mentioned earlier, and it was very convenient to be able to fix them with that Loctite 420. I may look for another old cracked steering wheel to have as a spare.
I have sprayed the steering wheel with primer, but not taken a picture of that yet. It showed quite a bit of not to good sanding, so I need to sand more, and fill up a very few places with a little regular bondo, and I should be able to spray more primer on, before I spray the paint and clear coat.
More pics will come, and text update of how it goes. And a final picture of the result. It is rather rewarding to get things done, a little by little.
Bill