My '87 came with the steering wheel in the attached pic. Is that an optional steering wheel? I noticed the pre '88 cars came either with this type of three spoke where the spokes are mostly covered or one with bare metal spokes. Did these have different names? Guessing one was optional.

 

That was an optional wheel available on trans am and GTA. It was available in 87 only I think. Nice upgrade and yours seems to be in very good condition. Congrats!

 

The steering wheel was part of the leather appointment group, NP5, and was optional on the Trans Am but it was standard on the GTA (different horn cap) for 1987 until the remote control steering wheel became standard in 1988 for the GTA. I believe it was available in 1985.

 

My '85 and '86 both had them so they were definitely a base T/A option.

 

For clarification the NP5 leather appointment group was optional on the Trans Am and not included as part of the base Trans Am as the base Trans Am would had a similar steering wheel minus the leather and the leather "thumb grips".

 

Thanks! It's my favorite 3rd gen Firebird steering wheel, so I got lucky! Before I bought the car I found one of these on eBay for $25.00, and it's almost perfect. A spare and something to hang on the wall.

 

Thanks everyone for the clarification. So leather wrapped or not, the 3-spoke 3rd gen Firebird steering wheels (pre '88) are known as Formula Steering Wheels? And I assume that has nothing to do with the Firebird Formula model since these steering wheels were available prior to the reintroduction of the Formula model.

Part two of my question - Is the optional leather wrapped NP5 wheel I have all leather, or is it also partially vinyl or whatever material the standard 3-spoke is made of? The reason I ask is some of my wheel is obviously leather (the top half of the wheel above the two horizontal spokes), but other areas have a different texture and feel (the two quarters of the wheel below the two horizontal spokes) and the I’m not clear on the material covering the spokes. I don’t know if I should use only a leather cleaner and conditioner on the whole steering wheel, or leather cleaner/conditioner on part of it, and vinyl cleaner/conditioner on the other areas? I want to preserve this one as best I can.

 

I'd recommend against any type of leather conditioner on the wheel; I had been putting Lexol on the leather wheel of my '02 T/A since it was new, and now I have the greasiest/most worn-out looking steering wheel of any 1995-02 T/A I've seen, which sucks since I was trying to take better care of it than all the others. Same with the parking brake handle. Best advice is just keep it clean, use soap/water if needed.

Good find though, I spent $40 on a base 1985-86 steering wheel thinking it was the leather one since I didn't know there were 2 different ones.

 

Yes,Formula,right,nothing to do with that.P/2,No it's all leather.I don't know about cleaning it,I don't use anything on mine.

 

Thanks for the tip. That's interesting considering Lexol is good stuff. The only thing I've used so far to clean it is Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer wipes, and only like twice. I've had good luck with these in other vehicles, but I never use this stuff more than I have to. Just from having experience with Vettes, I know GM leather is not the best. One of the ways they keep that car affordable I guess? I can't imagine them using better leather on F-body cars, so perhaps that's why it ended up that way? Sorry to hear that. For me I think the strategy is keeping as much UV off the interior as possible and driving the car with clean hands, as silly as that sounds.

 

Yep, clean hands is really the only other thing you can do to prevent wear. I don't think GM has ever been known for their leather quality, particularly in perforated areas on leather seats. They always seem to dry out.