Steering Wheel "De-Bling"

[Mark SR.]

My wife drove my Cruiser for a little over a year when she lost her company car back in 2010. My theory that her overuse of hand sanitizer ruined the faux wood on the doors and console is a valid one. I removed it all w/ advice from this forum and it looks so much better IMO. I think it also led to premature failure of leather wrap on the steering wheel. I removed some of it and now the foam under it has detached from the metal inside, and it twists.

I would love to have a "standard" steering wheel. Has anyone put a non-leather steering wheel on a 100? I had a base 07 Tundra and the wheel on it was great. My 90 4Runner's wheel is original and has just gotten a little smoother where hands go.

I have searched and most info pertains to upgrading to a wood wheel or something fancy. I need a new wheel, but I am looking to "down-grade" and want durability over bling. A new oem wheel is over $700 at best.

Something like this LC200 GX wheel, in Oak, would work great.

 

[Auggies'Blu]

De-bling?

Hi, not sure what you mean by "de-bling" the steering wheel but I wrapped my stock steering wheel on my 99 and 06 in leather Wheelskins and they look, feel and wear great, IMHO. The color matches nicely and its easy to maintain. I'll post up some pictures when I can. Again, not sure why you would want it in oak if you want to de-bling it? Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly?

 

[FlammableFishie]

Hi, not sure what you mean by "de-bling" the steering wheel but I wrapped my stock steering wheel on my 99 and 06 in leather Wheelskins and they look, feel and wear great, IMHO. The color matches nicely and its easy to maintain. I'll post up some pictures when I can. Again, not sure why you would want it in oak if you want to de-bling it? Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly?

I second the Wheelskins route. I'm actually in the process of resewing my wrap as we speak. Looks awesome, nobody realizes it's a cover, and if you don't mind a few blisters and have a couple hours to kill you can make the stitching look really good (what I'm attempting at the moment). I'll post up pictures once I'm done, thankfully no blood has been spilt yet

 

[alpendubber]

Pic of Wheelskins?

Interested to preserve my 80's perfect wheel.

 

[FlammableFishie]

This is what I've got. Crap lighting cause it gets dark here around 6 and I finished stitching past 10. But I'm incredibly pleased with the results of my restitching.

I should also add that this is not the color stitching that comes with the Wheelskins cover. I bought extra waxed cord to replaced the frayed cord that came with it.

 

[wood744]

Dang. I was hoping this would be a post on how to remove the chrome toyota "sombrero" from the airbag cover. Good luck with finding an answer.

 

[Mark SR.]

Thanks for the replies. I don't love the look of the Wheelskins, but wish I had put one on a while back to preserve the original SW. Better yet, I wish the original leather had been just covering a useable wheel.

 

[mobi-arc]

www.craftcustoms.com

 

[semlin]

is aatlas not still doing reconditioned wheels?

https://forum.ih8mud.com/labrak-metric-tlc/424505-new-100-series-steering-wheels-1998-up.html

 

[Mark SR.]

Looks like CraftCustoms it is. Now to see if I can run the old 4Runner wheel on the LC while its wheel travels to & from Craft.