Genuine leather-lined steering wheel spokes

[DBA Dan]

Gday all.

RE: Steering wheel spokes - paint replaced with genuine leather.

I recently replaced my shabby VZ painted plastic steering wheel spokes with a set that I lined with genuine leather. I'm into leatherwork and figured it would be a great solution to this painted plastic rubbish that wears so poorly - especially immediately adjacent to the wheel ring. The leather-lined set look soooo much better than the painted ones and clearly with wear well too.

I put a set on eBay too and they sold within 24hrs! The buyer was delighted. Black leather looks great and goes with anything - especially leather steering wheels. Could also do in brown.

Have a look at pic's attached.

Maybe others are interested? Drop me a note if you'd like a set lined.

PS: please let me know if I've accidentally posted this in the wrong area. Pretty new to this stuff. Happy to shift it if need be.

 

[yamahahatim]

oooooh they look nice....... seeing as your in to leatherwork, have you re trimmed a steering wheel before???? Ive got a vz ss crewman one that's worn, and looks crap.......

 

[355VR]

They look good!

 

[DBA Dan]

No I haven't as yet but happy to do it as I've read up on how to do it and have all the right gear.
I have seen some replacement leather steering wheel covered on eBay and elsewhere. I didn't take a lot of notice of price or quality etc. They'd be full-blown commercial jobs - unlike mine - all hand done. Keep in mind that most commercial stitching is sub-standard to hand stitching by virtue of how the actual stitches are formed. YouTube explains this quite well. Hand-stitching creates a knot in every stitch - preventing it from unraveling if a stitch is worn through/broken.

In any case, if eBay doesn't have what you're after, I'd be happy to give it a go for you. My work would be one piece of genuine leather too - not a 100 cheapie bits all sewn together. I get my leather straight from the tannery wholesale in VIC. I have both black and dark brown 1.2mm leather hides at the moment - both fine for this duty level.

 

[DBA Dan]

Thanks. Yes - as essentially a little experiment putting my leatherwork skills into play to solve the crap painted spokes - they turned out really well. They look really smart and of course, genuine leather will wear far better than the painted surfaces. No rubbish (fake) PU-leather in my house!
If I had a supply of the old tatty spokes, I'd trim up a whole bunch and sell them - not to make $$$ but to resolve the hopeless painted spokes problem. I'll NEVER understand why they leather-trim the steering wheel but paint the wheel's spokes!

Hey - take a look at my other posting on fixing the steering wheel radio buttons - the ones that break off all the time coz they're engineered with hinges made from ultra-thin plastic. No wonder those buttons break off. Clearly not designed to last the life of the car! You can't by them new any more - so all the USED ones on sale are already well into their life-span and cost what the new ones used to cost! Damn that supply-n-demand caper! Fixed that problem! Roo leather! Baaa hahahaha. Worked brilliantly!