KenF
Gold forum user
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I haven't seen anything on restoring wood steering wheels, besides sending it off and have $omeone else do it. So I figured I'd show what I did with mine, and I'm no expert, and sorry for the long picturesque thread. Mine had a few cracks and the glued seams between the fore and aft rim pieces were starting to delaminate, probably about a third of the way around. But the good thing was all the wood and the black inlay was all there. Since I enjoy woodworking and have done a lot in the past, I decided to repair it myself. And, I'm my own cheapest labor. 
Here's what I started with. You can see the crack below the right spokes and delamination around the left spokes. But it does match the dash, at least in condition.
Here it is disassembled, typical 50+ year old cracked plastic hub. The stainless spokes cleaned up nice. The horn ring was in good shape, except the rings were kind of bent forward from laying on the horn. A little gentle persuasion got it back where it laid flat upside down on the table, and repainted the black.
Here is the wood separated from the rim. I used a utility blade where it was delaminating and pried it apart. This is where the most time is spent, removing the old finish. Not sure what they used back then, but it's tough stuff. I briefly tried a few paint removers, which I really didn't want to use, and they didn't work anyway. Scraping vertically with a utility blade somewhat works, but I only used that in tight spaces and at the edge of the cracks since sanding would tend to round the edges. I found a 3M Paint & Varnish Remover Pad (3M No. 9413ES-6-B) which is like having a purple Scotch Bright in my drill press. I used that to get ~90% of the finish off, stopping before getting to bare wood, then use 150 grit to get the rest off. You want to be very careful not to remove any wood, not much there to start with. I'm guessing it took me 8-10 hours work, but hey, what else am I going to do?
Bead blasted the rim and hub, then lightly painted. Sanded the wood rim with 320, then 400. Test fitted wood pieces to make sure all the seams were as tight as possible. Had to scrape some of the old glue from the seams, and also in the half round of each half so the seams would come together around the rim. I used System Three T-88 2 part epoxy to glue the wood back on. It has a 45 minute set time, you don't want a fast setting epoxy here.
Had to buy a few more clamps. Once clamped, clean up excess as much as you can, it will save you time later. I let this sit like this for 2+ days, T-88 has a 72 hour cure time.
For thick globs of glue use a blade to cut off. Sand the rest with 150, 320, then 600. It's ready to finish. The black inlay is just plastic, and doesn't mind fine sand paper. Also cleaned up the copper horn contacts so my horn wouldn't only work sometimes. Set spacing between copper plates at .020".
I wanted it a little darker so I wiped on some wood stain before the varnish. Not sure what they looked like new from the factory, mine was pretty dark, probably from weathering in the sun, etc. The rim is mahogany, so I can't imagine it was as dark as the burled walnut dash when new.
First coat of varnish, first of 10. Went to marine supply and got this Pettit 1015 varnish, with U.V. protection. Re-coat time is 12 hours, so it took me 6 days to get 10 coats on. Sanded with 400 between the first few coats, then used a fine bronze wool (don't use steel wool). Tried brush at first, but ended up using foam brushes, which didn't leave marks, and funner cleanup.
After 10 coats, here are what the cracks look like. I did use a little putty where the epoxy didn't fill the crack completely.
I bought one of Eric's (65Sunbeam) 2 piece Delrin hubs to replace my broken one. Got it all back together and took it for a drive to see if it works, and got caught in a little sprinkle. Turned out good, but it does make to rest of the car look pretty bad now.
Here's what I started with. You can see the crack below the right spokes and delamination around the left spokes. But it does match the dash, at least in condition.Here it is disassembled, typical 50+ year old cracked plastic hub. The stainless spokes cleaned up nice. The horn ring was in good shape, except the rings were kind of bent forward from laying on the horn. A little gentle persuasion got it back where it laid flat upside down on the table, and repainted the black.
Here is the wood separated from the rim. I used a utility blade where it was delaminating and pried it apart. This is where the most time is spent, removing the old finish. Not sure what they used back then, but it's tough stuff. I briefly tried a few paint removers, which I really didn't want to use, and they didn't work anyway. Scraping vertically with a utility blade somewhat works, but I only used that in tight spaces and at the edge of the cracks since sanding would tend to round the edges. I found a 3M Paint & Varnish Remover Pad (3M No. 9413ES-6-B) which is like having a purple Scotch Bright in my drill press. I used that to get ~90% of the finish off, stopping before getting to bare wood, then use 150 grit to get the rest off. You want to be very careful not to remove any wood, not much there to start with. I'm guessing it took me 8-10 hours work, but hey, what else am I going to do?
Bead blasted the rim and hub, then lightly painted. Sanded the wood rim with 320, then 400. Test fitted wood pieces to make sure all the seams were as tight as possible. Had to scrape some of the old glue from the seams, and also in the half round of each half so the seams would come together around the rim. I used System Three T-88 2 part epoxy to glue the wood back on. It has a 45 minute set time, you don't want a fast setting epoxy here.
Had to buy a few more clamps. Once clamped, clean up excess as much as you can, it will save you time later. I let this sit like this for 2+ days, T-88 has a 72 hour cure time.
For thick globs of glue use a blade to cut off. Sand the rest with 150, 320, then 600. It's ready to finish. The black inlay is just plastic, and doesn't mind fine sand paper. Also cleaned up the copper horn contacts so my horn wouldn't only work sometimes. Set spacing between copper plates at .020".
I wanted it a little darker so I wiped on some wood stain before the varnish. Not sure what they looked like new from the factory, mine was pretty dark, probably from weathering in the sun, etc. The rim is mahogany, so I can't imagine it was as dark as the burled walnut dash when new.
First coat of varnish, first of 10. Went to marine supply and got this Pettit 1015 varnish, with U.V. protection. Re-coat time is 12 hours, so it took me 6 days to get 10 coats on. Sanded with 400 between the first few coats, then used a fine bronze wool (don't use steel wool). Tried brush at first, but ended up using foam brushes, which didn't leave marks, and funner cleanup.
After 10 coats, here are what the cracks look like. I did use a little putty where the epoxy didn't fill the crack completely.
I bought one of Eric's (65Sunbeam) 2 piece Delrin hubs to replace my broken one. Got it all back together and took it for a drive to see if it works, and got caught in a little sprinkle. Turned out good, but it does make to rest of the car look pretty bad now.
