Carrera Sport Steering Wheel Resto

[Carl Bauer]

I picked up this heavily armor-alled Carrera sport wheel off eBay for 70 bucks to replace my stock SC wheel. Here's a before picture from the ad:





Unfortunately, the police patrol 911 did not come with the wheel.

It was obvious that the leather had seen better days but when I received the wheel it was in fact a bit worse:








The wheel/leather was very dirty, had lots of surface cracking, and the stitching was gone along the top.

I did some searching on Pelican and chose to order color plus (Surflex) supplies from carcareonline.com

These are two great threads I patterned my project on:

Leather repair

My Seat Dyeing Procedure

I ordered a bar of Color+ soap, the 8oz. Soffner ($10), and the 8oz. 917 code black leather dye ($28). Somehow cconline had it cheaper than the Color+ website. Go figure.

I made a trip to Wal-Mart for the 800 grit 3M wet/dry sand paper, lacquer thinner, natural hair paint brush, and a tack cloth (which I didn't need) for a total of $15.

First I cleaned the wheel with the Color+ soap and warm water. After cleaning I let the wheel sit overnight to dry.

The Color+ dye can said to give the leather a few coats of Soffner oil to regain some suppleness. I worked in the Soffner, let the wheel sit over night, and in the morning I buffed off the remaining Soffner.

I then let the wheel sit overnight again before cleaning the leather with lacquer thinner. Now this was the first step that had me bugged out. I really didn't want to rub the leather with lacquer thinner... using my imagination I could see the leather gumming up, getting all tacky, and falling apart in my hands. So, summoning all my courage, I started cleaning the leather (to remove most of the original surface dye) with the lacquer thinner. If you do this try to avoid the stitching (who knows it may fall apart!) To my amazement the leather stayed smooth and solid and would be ready for sanding after ANOTHER night to completely dry off.

[Carl Bauer]

This next step really bothered me as well. You're supposed to SAND LEATHER?!? No, you're not using a Scotch-Brite Pad to do the sanding but it's still a bit intimidating. I mean you could mess up this very thing you've bought all this stuff for! But, just like the lacquer thinner the sanding goes really well. Try and sand evenly around the entire wheel, in the direction of the cracks, and don't sand too deep or you'll be turning leather into suede. You'll obviously have to focus a bit harder on the bad spots and soon enough the cracks and roughness will disappear.






Next I treated the wheel to a dry wipe down, another cleaning/rubbing with lacquer thinner, and its regular overnight rest. The prep work (95% of the job) was finally finished.

The next morning it was time to finally dye the wheel. Stir the dye, load up the brush, not too thick (thin coats are the best) and brush it on. I only needed two coats before it looked fully coated. I let it dry for a few hours and buffed it out with a terry cloth and it really looked as good as new (with a slight loss of grain)!

As a first time leather restorer I'm very happy with the results:



Now in the car:

[JRISER]

Nice job! The wheel looks like the day it was made. I really like the original stock look. Very clean.

[Carl Bauer]

Here are two images of the car that my 'new' wheel steers:

[Jastx]

Excellent job, Carl. This is the firs time I have seen Surflex in action and it looks great.

[kilodawg]

Great job Carl,

I know it means more when you do it yourself. Please let us know how it holds up.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Big congrats Carl. Looks good as new. What did you do about the re-stitiching?

I posted awhile back about hthe resto on the 3 spoke wheel on my 76. The leather was good but the stitching was all but gone! I bought some stuff called "artificial sinew" from a big "crafter" type place. With curved needles and a LOT of time in front of the TV it came out great.

[JRISER]

Carl,

That's a SWEET car! Of course I am partial to Euro cars.

Are you in Texas or North Carolina?

[Carl Bauer]

Thanks guys.

Dan, After soaking the leather in Soffner and sanding then I replicated the factory XXX pattern along the top. I had my trial and error period when I redid my SC wheel with an AGLA cover. I had some old thread left over from the AGLA kit... it's close enough to the original stuff.

JRISER, I'm in TX now since the beginning of the year. Haven't changed the plates over yet.

[bmgmd]

Great job!

I just changed my wheel since it was so worn; glad to see there is a DIY that can restore it.