So I'm driving home in girlfriends sentra and I'm changing radio stations adjusting volume setting cruise control and driving with buttons and I think to myself "wow, this is extremely nice and convenient."
I thought to myself hmm I wonder if there is a good looking steering wheel out there that would go well with my project.

Which brings me to here. Do any of you know of any 'good looking' steering wheels with these buttons? The color of the lights doesn't matter because I will change them to match the interior lighting of blue.

So yeah any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

To answer your question yes it can be done (anything can be done if you're willing to spend enough money). I believe the easiest thing to do is take an 87-89 firebird with steering wheel controls and take the steering wheel and radio out of the car I am not sure if there is another module to go with it or if it is all in the steering wheel. Now from what I understand these have a digital interface? so there is no aftermarket adapter to make it work with an aftermarket reciever, and finding a cd player from that era can be very difficult (as far as I know there was no cd player offered until either 1990 or 1991) and even harder to find one that works (I had one and had it repaired but was not impressed at all it wouldn't play very many burned cds and the sound quality sucked compared to aftermarket radios) but cd players from other cars do work as long as they are from that era (not sure which ones but a search will probably tell you more.

Your other option would be to get a steering wheel and radio (and possibly the module if it exists) out of a 4th gen car. I'm not sure what kind of car you have but I believe all the 4th gen firebirds got steering wheel controls and camaros got them from 98-02. I know the 98-02 camaro steering wheel looks pretty close to the 90-92 steering wheel but just has buttons for the radio control.and I believe the firebird steering wheel is pretty close too. Personally I think this is a better option because #1. the radios are better quality. #2. finding a cd player would be much easier. #3. There is a better chance of theses parts still working since they are newer. #4. there is an aftermarket adapter to make these controls work with an aftermarket receiver. Also I think you could probably make these work from other cars (Grand Prix, Monte Carlo etc) since I'm sure the wiring and interface would be the same and much more plentiful in yards.

This is something I was very interested in but when I looked into pricing (my guess would be a minimum of $200 for the steering wheel and radio from a yard I'm sure you could do better though if you knew some people, then I believe the adapter is between $50 and $75 I don't remember though as it was some time ago, and then the adapter you buy will only work with one brand of stereo and if you have an aftermarket stereo it might not even work with an adapter) it just didn't seem to add up for me I have them in my Grand Prix and have had them in a few other cars and I have to say they are great you definitely get used to them very quick and wonder how you ever lived without them but after driving my Camaro the last couple of weeks I have gotten by without them I just think it's kind of a spendy upgrade to save the trouble of extending your arm. Also I did read some reviews about the steering wheel control adapter on crutchfield and from what I saw there was some delay in hitting the button and the radio responding and I'm sure some other issues but I can't remember them right off. Also when you start dealing with this many items (in my case I will always have an aftermarket cd player) if something doesn't work how do you know what doesn't work if there's problems. But if you decide to do this please share your results I would love to see and do this if you could do this at a reasonable price. Keep us updated. Also there is a thread somewhere on here about someone doing this but I don't remember if he finished it or not.

 

The radio control adapter from Crutchfield referred to above, will work with the '87-89 Firebird controls and many aftermarket headunits (according to Crutchfield anyway). I plan on going that route in my '89 GTA when I replace my stolen headunit. Oh, and if you should happen to find a working factory CD headunit from that era, be advised that the steering wheel controls are NOT compatible. They only worked with the cassette headunits.

 

I stand corrected I guess my info is a little old. I had a 1990 olds cutlass about 10 years ago with the steering wheel controls and at that time I was told there was no adapter made and there probably never would be as they had changed the interface years earlier and there probably wouldn't be a market for them for very long. I'm glad I'm wrong though as there is more options for our cars now.

However I do believe there is factory cd players that will work with the 87-89 steering wheel controls. From what I understand they made 2 kinds of receivers. Now it is very possible that one from a trans am would not work but I believe if you found a 93 or older GM car that had steering wheel controls and a cd player that that cd player should work with your steering wheel controls. I could be wrong but this is the way it was explained to me years back and I think I remember reading a thread on here about that. I could be wrong though (as you see I already was once).

Also after reading this last night it kind of peaked my interest so I looked for more details and there was a guy on here who added them out of a 1996 bonneville. Basically all you need is the steering wheel and the clockspring (and of coarse a compatible radio) I'm not sure if you could put this into your existing column otherwise you would have to swap out your steering column.

 

My understanding is that the GM/Delco radios were the same across the entire product line. Yes, there were several models available over the years, but the Trans Am/GTA steering wheel controls from 87-89 were never compatible with any factory CD headunit. I have no information about steering wheel controls from other GM models, so there might be a workable combo out there. But if you want to retain the factory Trans Am controls, you're out of luck unless you go with an aftermarket radio and an adaptor box. Most people would choose to go this route anyway, as the factory radios, um, how to put this nicely? Well, they basically suck!
I've got a guy working on modifying the factory radio pod and trim plate to accommodate a double-din Pioneer Nav unit (probably the Z110BT unless I change my mind) so that it will look like it was factory installed. This guy does fantastic work, so I know it'll look great! He mostly works on custom bezels for C5/C6 Corvettes, but he's interested in expanding his business, so he's seeing what he can do with my radio pod. Naturally, I'll post pics somewhere whenever it gets done, but it will be a while. We're each busy with other projects at the moment.