Hey Guys,


It's been too darn cold to be out in the garage for very long...so I figured I'd get my steering wheel project finished. It had been sitting on the back-burner since May - I've been busy.



Just to recap - the idea was to cut down the 17" stock steering wheel and make one a little less bus like. Here's the start point. I cut the old weel rim off and welded on the new smaller rim. I also gave it more dish to space the wood wheel away from the horn ring.

I ended up having to do a segmented wooden wheel as I couldn't get the mahogany to bend nicely (I could have steamed it, but I'm "lazy"). I went with a segmented wheel - with all parts being cut sequentially it minimizes the look of the segments. I decided to go with an inlay of Bloodwood - it matches my red interior and is hard and very pretty.

Here's the shots of putting the wood on the metal rim - West System Epoxy was used to glue everything.

Lots of clamps were used, but light pressure, you don’t want to squeeze out the epoxy.

What was I saying about the clamps?

Here it is with the plastic repaired and the mahogany toned to a better colour.

I carved a thumb groove to make it a very comfy wheel.

The horn push that I have in the car right now will replace this ratty one - it was just for test fitting things. Not bad for a $10 eBay wheel and about two weekends and a few weeknights.

Be careful...clear coating your wood steering wheel increases the colour and "pop" of the wheel. Here's the last instalment of the wheel build until I get it bolted in the car at least. Another well spent afternoon in Greg's paint booth...I mean garage the the new wheel and shift knob have a new finish. It's a 2-part polyurethane clear that came out of a rattle can. It's every bit as toxic and hard as normal car paint, but quite a bit less expensive ($25 per can). I only needed a single can to get the parts coated.

Five coats of clear were applied to the wheel (including the black centre part) and 4 went on the shift ball. After it dried up (overnight) I had a little wet sanding to do (starting at 400 and ending up at 2000 grit) as the finish settled into the grain of the wood and there were a few mishaps. You'd think I'd be better at the wheel painting gig after the GT wheel, but clear out of a can is tricky. It sanded great and polished up like a new dime. It takes quite a bit to polish the poly as it is so hard, but the results speak for themselves. Smooth as glass.

From the side.

Aerial shot.

This shot shows off the Bloodwood to best effect.

That’s all for now.

Craig

you know.. in addition to what I said earlier (like I said.. was nearly speechless)... if you have the time before summer... you really should do a proper writeup on this project and submit it to some magazines. Go for the vintage British car folks... I can't imagine that there wouldn't be a lot of interest in such a project... and you'd get paid for your efforts if someone published it.

If I'd just finished up a project that came out so nice.. I too would enjoy it with some single malt on the rocks...

Cheers!

--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂

Cheers Matt, I'll have to think about doing an article. We must have similar tastes...I bought a bottle of Longmorn to add to the Scotch cabinet in celebration.

Craig

http://www.jag-lovers.org/saloons/veneer/

Recognize any of the clamps?

Sorry Craig...had to...

--
Dale

Outed...any one want to buy a Jaguar?

Wow.
I do a lot of woodworking - mostly small cabinets and house trim, but you have me in awe with those last few pictures. *very* nice.

FYI - I saw a pretty cool steam bending setup that used a long PVC pipe for the steam chamber...

Thanks RJ, I've done some steam bending in the past, but doing the wheel one strip at a time didn't appeal to me. I tried several different methods over the summer, but just couldn't get the joinery up to my standards. I wanted to get the wheel done for this spring, so had to resort to the segmented wheel. In the end I still like the way it turned out. By the way, while in graduate school I worked as a finish carpenter and cabinet maker - so I've had some practice with this sort of thing.

Craig

Wow.... nearly speechless.

Very very nice. THanks

--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂

That's some really fine craftsmanship. A piece of art if you ask me. Excellent choice of wood. Thanks for sharing.

Wow!!! That's a beautiful piece of work.

Not to be picky, but the finger clearance between the wooden rim and the horn ring looks a little tight to me, even with the added deeper dishing. I suppose you could remove the horn ring if it turns out to be a problem.

I know it looks like it would be tight, but it isn't and I've got big hands. With the extra width, you don't tend to wrap your hand around the wheel as the wheel is 1.25" in cross section (i.e. your thumb doesn't touch your fingers, but rests in the thumb grove). It is very different feel from the original skinny wheel. On the bottom of the wheel, fingers fit just fine - not with mits on, but bare hands are ok (joke for Canadians). If I was doing it again, I would either give it a little more room (about 1/2 inch), or redo the horn ring to be smaller.

VERY nice work Craig! Can't wait to see a photo of it installed!


Cheers!
OK

Squeezing on to that wooden wheel in the extreme cold is probably a lot more tolerable then the one that is already in the car. (The steering wheel is the only reason I keep gloves in my 130.)

When I put a smaller steering wheel in my 245, I was very pleased. It sure makes the car a lot more fun to drive.

Very cool pictures.
--
Formerly 'HearToTemptYou'

That was part of the motivation, that 17" wheel is a little too large for my liking, but I didn't want to go with an R-Sport wheel - they look fantastic, but I don't think they would fit well in my interior.

Nice job, i'm going to tackle this in the future. be sure to post some pic's when its installed, i'm sure i'm not the only one that would like to see it in the car.

C.

When it quits being -20C all the time, it will get installed, but fumbling around with my mits on to get the wheel installed is not very high on my priority list, that and I still have to get the rear end mounted in the car.

Craig

Hi Craig,
Awsome wheel! The whole car from what you have shown so far is fantastic!
Thanks for the pictures and the inspiration!
Chris