Redo a Steering Wheel with Clear Vinyl tubing

[Dick Koch]

Bare ring

The clear resin sections of my Sport Fury steering wheel turned yellow with age, cracked and fell off leaving a pristine like new chrome ring. Over the years trying to make it presentable l covered the ring with hose and laced covers. The last effort was a seventeen inch red and black cover for a eighteen wheeler steering wheel. It made the car wheel look even larger and bulkier. Fellow site member Dennis Cloer (skyhawk) suggested covering the chrome ring with clear vinyl tubing thus saving $1K to $1.5K in having it cast with clear resin. The car being a driver and not a points car l decided to give it a go.

The tubing length has to be measured carefully and ends trimmed as necessary to fit. The tubing is then slit with a razor blade or sharp box cutter on the inside curve of the tubing. I did not glue on the ring or the slit because l might want to remove them in the future and it would be extremely messy. Believe me they will not move.
The first layer is 3/8" lD × 1/2" OD.
The 2nd layer is 1/2" ID × 5/8" OD.
The 3rd layer is 5/8" ID × 3/4" OD.
The 4th layer is 3/4" ID × 1" OD
You can buy 10 ft. Lengths at Lowes. See the pitchuhs.

First tubing

Second tubing

Third tubing

Fourth tubing

This is the 18 wheeler cover

[Faulkner]

What a cool trick, Dick!

Do you think that maybe you could leave off the fourth tube? Here's a pic of the wheel from Art Schlachter's car - the clear portion is thinner than then colored portion...

BTW - the last time I checked, it was $2K to recast a wheel!

[Dick Koch]

Yes, it would still look good without the fourth layer. That was my thought as l was putting it on. Either way it still looks pretty good.

[skyhawk61]

When I did the initial clear vinyl tubing mock-up "experiment" on a spare Fury sport wheel, I found that the result looked more proportional to me when 5/8 " ID tubing was used as the final overlay. When correctly installed, the splits overlap with each other and are not immediately noticeable. I was surprised as how well the chrome ring showed through the vinyl tubing.

[schlaaj]

It amazes me how clever people can me in restoring their cars. Who would have thought about adding layers of clear tubing to replace the yellowed
and/or cracked clear plastic on the steering wheel. I had my steering wheel re-cast - including both the clear plastic and the hand grips. Solid center
bar was also replated before installing new materials. My cost four years ago was $2,000 and I had to wait one year before he could get to it with a $400. advance deposit

. For just having a nicely restored driver car, I think the clear tubing would be a way to go. (My 59 Sport Fury is concours quality and I was willing to fork out the money to have it replated and recast. This year I installed a completely new (Original color and pattern) door side panels, carpet and seat covers) Dick Koch has really been a big plus to this web site as he has helped me many times over in the past. He knows his stuff.

Art Schlachter
Danville, Ky

[Dick Koch]

Thanks Art, you are so kind. My knowledge is accumulated knowledge and experience of all the participants of this sight, my thanks goes to them including you.

[RICKYMOPAR]

This great idea will help me in making a mold to recast steering wheels.

[Dick Koch]

Ricky, good luck with that, just make sure you don't burn your fingers when squeezing the heated vinyl tubing. heh, heh.