Hey Folks

Well my wheel on my car was toast. The PO had taken the top leather section off the wheel and my car being very original It was driving me nuts. Have been on the hunt for a wheel for quite sometime. I managed to find a wheel in ok shape through Paradise Alley up here in Canada. Spent last night starting the process wet sanding with 600 grit to get the old cracked and worn dye off. I will be using the Leatherique steering wheel dye kit and will post my process and results. Here are some pics of the wheel so far. Keep in mind the top section of the wheel was cracked terribly and once finished my first sand I'm pretty happy.

 

Wet sanding a leather steering wheel? Never thought of that one. I definitely want to see how this turns out

 

Well I finished the process the evening. Here's exactly what I did from start to finish.

Step 1

Wet sand with 600 grit. Ensure you're not pushing and let the paper do the work. Only sand until the glazed coating/ dye is down to the leather grain.

Step 2

Get pure acetone not the acetone your wife has for doing her nails I mean regular acetone from the hardware store shelf. Saturate a rag in acetone and wipe the wheel clean a couple times. The first time you'll have to change your rag a few times because it will be black with dye.

Step 3
Get yourself some black leather dye. I went to a local leather craftsman who sold me 3 oz of the black dye he uses to dye tanned leather black. It also had a medium gloss mixed in it so there's no need for a clear overtop. I took a lint free shop towel and rubbed the dye into the leather until I was happy with the saturation. ENSURE you continue to stir your dye as it can affect your color. I applied the dye and waited 2 hours which was only because I had some things I had to do and re applied a second application.

Step 4
Get a clean microfibre towel and buff the wheel fairly hard which will bring the clear out to the top.

Step 5
Coat the wheel with you favourite leather treatment. STAY AWAY FROM SILICONE BASED TREATMENTS. Not because it will affect the dye but it's leathers worst enemy.









I know it's not as good as a brand new wheel but hey it would have cost me almost 900 Canadian just to get one of the wheels out of Texas and to be honest aside from the odd rub or scrap in the wheel it looks new! My total cost of wheel and material was 205 dollars.

 

Nice work, it looks great. These wheels did not wear very well, most used ones are damaged.

 

I hate to burst your bubble, but automotive leather isn't supposed to be shiny. It should have a matte or nearly flat finish. When I see a shiny leather or rubber wheel, I immediately think the car's been ragged out, or driven by someone who works with their hands a lot and never washes them.

I was in the same situation, the previous owner of my '91 had torn off literally half of the leather cover on the steering wheel before I even got the car. Being an airbag car, I didn't have steering wheel radio controls to contend with, and didn't care about keeping the 15+ year old airbag at the time, so I just swapped an earlier 3 spoke Firebird wheel in (1984-86 style maybe?). Although I thought I was getting a leather replacement, after doing some research, it is indeed rubber and not leather. Would I rather have had leather? Sure. But honestly I can't tell the difference in the materials other than rubber holds up over time, and leather doesn't.

Most of the quotes I've seen for having a factory leather wheel properly recovered by a trim shop are in the $2-300 range. Of course that's U.S. dollars, and I'm not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment.

Your reconditioning is definitely an improvement over the torn/half missing leather cover, I'm just not sure if it's the most cost effective route.

Not sure what product you use, but I have not had good results with Lexol on the leather steering wheel on my '02 T/A that I purchased new. It's about as shiny as the one in the photos above, and looks much worse than all the other 4th gen's I've seen that likely never got treated. I always wash my hands before driving the car, so it's not from dirty hands either.

 

Hey Navy

I agree with you hhowever my car is staying all original which means the wheel needs to be original. I'm not into paying almost a g note for a wheel so this is the best I can do and I'm pretty happy with it.

T

 

Different strokes Different folks. I for one think it looks pretty good and would definitely rock it on my own car. It sure beats the look of a typical worn leather wheel or the look of some stupid wheel cover. Ill definitely have to try out this method on some of the spare steering wheels I have.

 

Well done! Thanks for sharing your technique.