My 85 iroc had the original steering wheel on it. It looked decent, but when outside temperature got hot it would drip a black goo from the seam. My car is all original stilland I wanted to keep it that way. Any replacement I found was worse than what I had. Cruising ebay one evening I came across a wheel for a leather wheel for a chevy lumina cheap. Why not I figured. I would see if it fit and if so have my original restored.
15 minutes of work tonight and here is the result. I like it so much that I don't think I will bother repairing the original.

 

That wheel looks great in there! Looks like you have a clean car sir!

 

I never liked the Cavalier/Lumina wheel in a thirdgen. It always looked extremely cheap to me, probably because I knew what car it came from. That bulky horn just kills the look.

 

My Trans Am's original steering wheel has softened at the very top, and although not oozing any goo yet (thankfully), it feels like you're squeezing a tube of tooth paste.

Looking through the classifieds here, I found a pretty decent Grant wheel which arrived in the mail today, but now I am not sure I want to go that route. I am considering what LilSki did for his 1985 Trans Am by adapting a 2nd Gen steering wheel to the car.

Anyway, I think that the whole idea is to do stuff to our cars that we like and your solution to your gooey steering wheel looks fine, IMO. Now, had you done some crazy shizz like using a steering wheel from a tractor for example, I may feel different (lol), but that one looks just fine.

Not sure you can repair the original steering wheel once it gets to the point you describe, or even if it's worth attempting to fix it.

Regards,

 

That's a nice looking wheel. Were you able to use all stock parts and everything hooked back up Ok?

 

Nicely done. That's probably my favorite incorrect steering wheel to put in a 3rd gen Camaro. A *huge* and cheap upgrade for anyone that has a base Camaro with the giant vertical rectangle steering wheel (a.k.a. ugliest steering wheel ever put in a production car).

 

imo the 1967 mustang had the uglyist steering wheel.lol.

 

My iroc has the cheapest steering wheel upgrade. Somebody decided to wrap it in black electrical tape

Makes the thing impossible to grip when its in the sun. GROSS!

 

Hmmmm...yeah that one's not too nice either. Too many holes and rivets. Other notable fugly steering wheels include the 2004-09 Grand Prix (airbag/hub is too big), and pretty much any Japanese car made before the mid-1980s.

 

*BARF*

That's pretty bad. I'd almost prefer driving a car with a pair of vice grips to a steering wheel covered in gooey nasty electrical tape.

 

Get yourself some cheap cotton gloves that you can just slip your hands out of and leave them stuck to the wheel. Keeps your hands clean and you never have to worry about losing them. Either that or buy a non-taped wheel off the classifieds.

 

hey i like that wheel

 

i like it, i lik the factory one in my 89 Z24 cavalier a lil better but it looks pretty good imo

 

I agree, looks great. Our interior doesn't look highly made to begin with (lots of cheap looking plastic) so the wheel looks at home.

 

the square wheel is the one i prefer honestly to my z28 wheel i'm looking for one in good condition if anyones got one, no i wont trade the z wheel though, not getting rid of any original equipment

 

Not bad looking really.

 

Anyone know why the wheels get sticky and soft? Mine does this too and I would love to do something about it.

 

mine does it because the Previous Owner wrapped it in electrical tape...

 

i believe its because of cheap foamy plastic stuff under the leather breaking down after being in the sun through the windsheild after the years and getting old, and having constant pressure on it. if you could get it recovered with tougher stuff under the leather then i imagine it'd hold up much better

 

i have the square style wheel from my sport coupe in perfect condition

 

pics?

 

i like it. What year Lumina was it on?