Serviceable Steering wheel?

[Skeete]

I have a 62 Deluxe with the original Steering wheel, but it has a worrying crack in it.

If I were to use some sort of compound to fill the crack (suggestions please) and repaint the whole thing, would this be considered safe?

[Tds76]

Inside the steering wheel is a steel armature and the bakelite is moulded over that armature - it is the steel that gives it strength not the bakelite, so as long as that is okay then all should be well.

On my 1275 GT wheel the cracks were at each end of every spoke. I ground them out to a V shape then filled with epoxy resin, filed & sanded back to shape and painted gloss black. I used masking tape as the form work to stop the resin running out.
The resin I used was Araldite and the paint was Duplicolor gloss black over their primer.
You may also make out some white dots on the repairs in the bottom LH picture, this is Humbrol fine modelling putty that I used to fill in some bubbles in the resin that were exposed as I re-shaped the repair.

Wheel.jpg

Cheers, Paul.

[Polarsilver]

I would not be prepared to drive my car with such a steering wheel repaired .. however small cracks can be repairable with good results.
Painting ..I use etch primer filler well rubbed down Then use Plasticote Paint .. they do rattle cans with both Primer & Top coat and its a good hard wearing gloss finish .. it can be found in various colours on the shelves of the Hobbycraft stores in the UK.

[andy1071]

I would say that in both cases, the cracks are due to stress.
-But as Paul says, there is a steel core to the wheels, so the stress cracks are due to the stiffness of the plastic, compared to the 'spring' of the core..

Skeete, your wheel looks worse, because I think the plastic has shrunk with age, as well

The plastic 'shell' of the wheel will contribute to the stiffness of the wheel, but not to the absolute strength.
So I think it is perfectly acceptable to fill with epoxy/Araldite (it is stronger than the plastic), sand and paint-

[Peter Laidler]

It LOOKS like the previous owner much overtightened the horn push retaining screw. A bit of sunshine, a bit of expansion and a crack developed. Horn push loose, so he's tightened it up - again!

If you are quite happy that the centre splined core is still rigidly fixed in place, I'd fix it with epoxy but make sure that it's absolutely clean and grease free in the crack.

Two pack epoxy based paints did it for me.........

[Skeete]

Thanks everyone for your advice.
The wheels steel armature appears completely intact, and I agree with Peter, it looks like the horn retaining screw was over tightened. I already repaired that as it had cracked.

I am going to give a go with Araldite this weekend and see if I can salvage it.

Appreciate the advice.

[Skeete]

After much sanding, filling, sanding etc.. I have finished the repair on the wheel.
Looks pretty nice with a new leather wrap.



Since then I have refurbished the column and given it a nice coat of gloss epoxy.

[UHR850]

Well done, big compliments.

Kees.

[AndyPen]

Impressed with that result - well done. We always used those covers and still have an original on our 970 SDL

[Skeete]

Thanks for the compliments.

Painting is certainly not an aspect I enjoy or am any good at, when you look closely you can see a little roughness in the paint and faint lines where the cracks were. That said, unless you're looking for them I doubt you would ever see them.

How do you ensure you get a mirror like finish with a rattle can of Epoxy gloss? I found light coats made a really grainy finish, so had to lay it on thicker and risk runs, but even then it still came out a little grainy.