Steering wheel restoration

[dons62tbird]

Well, I pulled the carb off, and the secondary was stuck. Floats need replacing. Time for a rebuild. So while some one I know is rebuilding it I have turned my sites onto some small cosmetics restoration.

I yanked the steering wheel, which is pretty beat up. I found a few guys on the net who repair them using epoxy putty. My wheel is pretty bad. Its marbled and lots of chunks missing. However I feel like it will come out looking new when I am done. I have been taking my time and filling and sanding. It actually looks quite good so far.

Any one have any recommendations on how to deal with the marble cracking?

As of right now I am just going to continue forth, and I am going to try a creamier epoxy filler to see if I can get em gone.

[YellowRose]

Steering wheel restoration

Squarebirds member Jed Zimmerman ~ Ca58Tbird does steering wheel restorations.. See his ad in the Advertisements Forum. He also makes the seat foams for most Tbirds.

[Guest]

Thanks Ray for the mention. Don, somewhere in the archives of this site is at least one/maybe two postings I had made on step by step instructions on how to restore a wheel with all applicable products that I use. I am not very good or successful at doing searches on this forum website, so if you are not successful either then just email be direct and I will provide you with an attached msword doc of the steps and products, as I have retained that document in my personal archives. My email is askhow@aol.com.

[dons62tbird]

I will poke around a bit. I did find a thread saying that the 62 and 63 wheels when badly cracked are not restoreable. Mine was pretty bad, although now you wouldn't know it. I have been working on it and it come a long way.
I started out with the epoxy putty stick. It took about 4 sessions to get everything I could fill with the putty. I sanded it starting at 100 grit working up to 400. I skimmed the wheel with Bondi to fill small imperfections. You can only see trace amounts. Then primed it with sandable primer and I will do that and sand it several times working up too 800 grit. I have only primed and sanded once but it looks amazing.

[Guest]

Don, it is true that the bulletbird wheels get badly cracked. The 62 and 63 wheels are made with a polyethelene type plastic that cracks really bad, liken to the 64-68 Mustang wheels. I have restored many of the plastic wheels for birds and mustangs, but sometimes they are beyond trying to restore. The 61 wheels were still made out of the bakelite type finish, as are all squarebird wheels. Mostly these are readily restorable, however again, sometimes the bakelite wheels are beyond hope too. I recall one time a bulletbird owner sent me a plastic wheel that was too far gone. So I went to a junk yard and bought a 61 wheel and restored that one which was interchangable with his 62 bird. I somewhat recall tho that the horn rings are about 1 degree different angles between the 61 and the 62-63.

For other's benefit I will paste below my responce to your earlier direct email to me.

" Don, I do not use sealer over the paint. The paint is the finish coat. With the wheel sanded to 80 grit I use 2 coats of either an epoxy primer such as Interlux Interprotect 2000 or Duratec vinylester fairing primer. Awlgrip makes an epoxy primer that I occasionally use as well. I sand the 1st coat of primer to 180 grit, then a 2nd coat of primer which is sanded to 320 grit. I only use Awlgrip paint. The Insignia white Awlgrip paint is a perfect match to the wimbleton white the squarebird wheels are factory painted with. The Awlgrip is sprayed on in 3 coats at 45 minute intervals (light coat, medium coat and heavier covering coat). Let dry overnight and providing there are no runs or sags, you've got an indestructible lifetime paint finish on the wheel.

A HVLP 1.0 mm touch up gun is preferable to use. Sometimes an airbrush is convenient to use as well."