So I do a bit of leatherwork, and I made my own Leather steering wheel cover for my FJ40.
I'm starting the process of making one for my Fj 60.
My plan is to (slowly) document the process here on this thread so other folks can do it too.
I'm starting today with the measurement process.
My plan is to have a guide anyone who can change a battery can follow using a cheap set of basic tools and a rectangle of leather off Amazon and make their own.
(total cost of tools is under $30, total cost of leather about the same, plenty to do 2 steering wheels.)
I use a flexible cloth measuring tape for sewing. I stole it out of my wife's sewing drawers and put it back when I was done.
That last step is critical
The tool kit I recomend below includes one.
I'm doing it in Inch Fractions, though I'm going to convert to MM in the final project because one of the goals is to later be cut this using a laser.
So I'm going to draw it up using the laser software.
But you don't need a laser, I made the one for the Fj 40 with a ruler, scissors, a Sharpie, and a hole punch, and it's great except I punched holes all the way round and forgot to leave gaps for the spokes. I intend to show this process, as well, and it will be a cover for one of the ranch 60s.
Once I have the wrap written up for the CNC Laser, folks should be able to print it out, or just use the measurements to make their own.
Leather Stretch.
Once you get the basic shape of the rectangle of leather you need to offset for the stretch of the leather. this is what makes the leather wrap tightly around the wheel following the finger grip contours etc. If you just cut a rectangle at all the dimensions and sew it on, it's not going to be tight unless the heat makes the leather shrink.
I have not used the kind of leather I'm going to use before so we'll do a few tests to guesstimate those offsets. The main thing to understand is that the leather loop we end up with will be slightly smaller than the wheel on both curcumferences. The definition of how slightly will be based on the stretchiness of the leather.
Here are the important measurements.
Wheel Grip curcumference: 2-11/16" (51.4875mm)
Complete wheel outer curcumference: 49-7/16" (1245.0375 mm)
Side spoke width: Lots of parallax here so I'm going to call it 1-3/8" (34.9250mm)
A little extra is is okay.
Bottom spoke WIdth:
2-5/16" (58.7 mm)
Inner circumference between the side spokes and the bottom spoke:
(not pictured on wheels, because I only have 2 hands)
8-7/8" (225 mm)
Inside circumference side spoke to side spoke around the top:
24-3/8" (619 mm)
with these numbers, you have everything you need to make your own custom wheel cover.
In essence here is the process,
1. Cut a rectangle of leather the outer wheel curcumference(minus a bit for stretch)
2. Punch holes for stitching/lacing around the curcumference, skipping the gaps for the spokes (the step I forgot on my 40)
3. Sew/Stitch the ends together to make a ring.
4. stretch the ring of leather onto the outside of the wheel.
5. Stitch/Lace the holes on the inside, to stretch the leather tightly around the wheel.
I'll be documenting the process in this thread as I get to it, depending on how excited I get it might be fast, it might be slow.
just because there is going to be a seam at the bottom anyway, and 49+ inches of leather has to come off a big piece of leather, I'm going to cut
2 pieces and stitch them together top and bottom, so I can get it from a smaller piece of leather.
To do this I need to add a seam allowance. I'm going to use a seam allowance of 1/4" or 6mm, since I'll be hand-stitching the one in this tutorial..
in that picture, the black shapes represent a piece of leather. the green represents stitching, and the part that is sticking up is how much extra leather I need to be able to stitch these pieces together and get the length of the resultant leather to be the desired length.
That's all seam allowance is.
Layout of the two pieces of leather, pre stretch.
So I'm going to draw up 2 rectangles using the following dimensions
Wheel Grip curcumference: 2-11/16" (51.4875mm)
Complete wheel outer curcumference: 49-7/16" (1245.0375 mm)
Side spoke width: 1-3/8" (34.9250 mm)
Bottom spoke Width: 2-5/16" (58.7 mm) (round up to 60mm, halve for 30mm for gap at bottom of each strap
Inner radius between the side spokes and the bottom spoke: 8-7/8" (225 mm)
Inside curcumference, side spoke to side spoke around the top:24-3/8" (619 mm) (round up to 620mm, halve to 310mm for gap at top end of each strap)
if you add all these up, you wind up about 1cm shorter than the outside curcumference, which is roughly the difference between the inner and outer circumferences divided by two... this is the minimum possible stretch allowance, as we want the inside curcumference where the stitching occurs.
Here is my layout, it's hard to read because I just took it out of the laser tool and stretched it big enough to see
The other upside is, I only need a rectangle of leather 24-25" wide, which is a lot cheaper and easier on amazon than buying a bigger piece from a leather supplier.
in the past I've used upholstery leather which is pretty thin (1-2mm), and average for stretchiness. For this, my Scientific wild ass guess for stretch is to remove an extra 1/8" of grip curcumferenceand about a half inch of wheel curcumferenceoff each piece (for 1" total removed)
The leather I'm using this time is a oil-tanned leather, and it's about 3x thicker. Plus the 60-wheel has a pretty big difference in the hills and valleys of the nobs on the dash side for grip. So I'm going to take a bit more out. 1/4" of grip curcumferencebut double the 1/2 on each piece for total curcumference. This is risky in that I might not be able to get the stitches to fully close and have to come back and tighten them later, or even remake the whole thing. There will be ludicrous amounts of stretch around the outside, just because stretch is a % and a % of 50" is going to be more than a % of 2.5" I can grab a 3" wide pice of this oil tan and get about 1/4" just with my hands. So it's pretty stretchy.
If you are using a tooling/ oak tan leather with no stretch, i'd put the leather on wet and remove the stretch allowance by half again.
Here is a video of a guy using Tooling leather for his. I'd go with a stretchier leather, because it's more forgiving.
the best way to be 100% sure to cut about 3" of leather the width of your final project, punch holes along the two edges like the real thing, and then stitch it onto your wheel as tightly as you can and let it sit for about a day and see if ends touch on the inside of the steering wheel. The Texas heat in the car will shrink things a bit for me so if it's pretty close I'm good, if you are in Alaska you might need very different tolerances.
I have gobs of leather and am setting the first one up to cut on the laser, so I'm going with my SWAG, I suggest you do the test piece just to reduce your uncertainties.
Here is a quick and dirty video so you can evaluate the stretch of your leather.
Google Photos - https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPRd2bCDZ1qK6ZkSbKlnqEURZFuf6XcmF8zGueU
I'm starting the process of making one for my Fj 60.
My plan is to (slowly) document the process here on this thread so other folks can do it too.
I'm starting today with the measurement process.
My plan is to have a guide anyone who can change a battery can follow using a cheap set of basic tools and a rectangle of leather off Amazon and make their own.
(total cost of tools is under $30, total cost of leather about the same, plenty to do 2 steering wheels.)
I use a flexible cloth measuring tape for sewing. I stole it out of my wife's sewing drawers and put it back when I was done.
That last step is critical
The tool kit I recomend below includes one.
I'm doing it in Inch Fractions, though I'm going to convert to MM in the final project because one of the goals is to later be cut this using a laser.
So I'm going to draw it up using the laser software.
But you don't need a laser, I made the one for the Fj 40 with a ruler, scissors, a Sharpie, and a hole punch, and it's great except I punched holes all the way round and forgot to leave gaps for the spokes. I intend to show this process, as well, and it will be a cover for one of the ranch 60s.
Once I have the wrap written up for the CNC Laser, folks should be able to print it out, or just use the measurements to make their own.
Leather Stretch.
Once you get the basic shape of the rectangle of leather you need to offset for the stretch of the leather. this is what makes the leather wrap tightly around the wheel following the finger grip contours etc. If you just cut a rectangle at all the dimensions and sew it on, it's not going to be tight unless the heat makes the leather shrink.
I have not used the kind of leather I'm going to use before so we'll do a few tests to guesstimate those offsets. The main thing to understand is that the leather loop we end up with will be slightly smaller than the wheel on both curcumferences. The definition of how slightly will be based on the stretchiness of the leather.
Here are the important measurements.
Wheel Grip curcumference: 2-11/16" (51.4875mm)
Complete wheel outer curcumference: 49-7/16" (1245.0375 mm)
Side spoke width: Lots of parallax here so I'm going to call it 1-3/8" (34.9250mm)
A little extra is is okay.
Bottom spoke WIdth:
2-5/16" (58.7 mm)
Inner circumference between the side spokes and the bottom spoke:
(not pictured on wheels, because I only have 2 hands)
8-7/8" (225 mm)
Inside circumference side spoke to side spoke around the top:
24-3/8" (619 mm)
with these numbers, you have everything you need to make your own custom wheel cover.
In essence here is the process,
1. Cut a rectangle of leather the outer wheel curcumference(minus a bit for stretch)
2. Punch holes for stitching/lacing around the curcumference, skipping the gaps for the spokes (the step I forgot on my 40)
3. Sew/Stitch the ends together to make a ring.
4. stretch the ring of leather onto the outside of the wheel.
5. Stitch/Lace the holes on the inside, to stretch the leather tightly around the wheel.
I'll be documenting the process in this thread as I get to it, depending on how excited I get it might be fast, it might be slow.
just because there is going to be a seam at the bottom anyway, and 49+ inches of leather has to come off a big piece of leather, I'm going to cut
2 pieces and stitch them together top and bottom, so I can get it from a smaller piece of leather.
To do this I need to add a seam allowance. I'm going to use a seam allowance of 1/4" or 6mm, since I'll be hand-stitching the one in this tutorial..
in that picture, the black shapes represent a piece of leather. the green represents stitching, and the part that is sticking up is how much extra leather I need to be able to stitch these pieces together and get the length of the resultant leather to be the desired length.
That's all seam allowance is.
Layout of the two pieces of leather, pre stretch.
So I'm going to draw up 2 rectangles using the following dimensions
Wheel Grip curcumference: 2-11/16" (51.4875mm)
Complete wheel outer curcumference: 49-7/16" (1245.0375 mm)
Side spoke width: 1-3/8" (34.9250 mm)
Bottom spoke Width: 2-5/16" (58.7 mm) (round up to 60mm, halve for 30mm for gap at bottom of each strap
Inner radius between the side spokes and the bottom spoke: 8-7/8" (225 mm)
Inside curcumference, side spoke to side spoke around the top:24-3/8" (619 mm) (round up to 620mm, halve to 310mm for gap at top end of each strap)
if you add all these up, you wind up about 1cm shorter than the outside curcumference, which is roughly the difference between the inner and outer circumferences divided by two... this is the minimum possible stretch allowance, as we want the inside curcumference where the stitching occurs.
Here is my layout, it's hard to read because I just took it out of the laser tool and stretched it big enough to see
The other upside is, I only need a rectangle of leather 24-25" wide, which is a lot cheaper and easier on amazon than buying a bigger piece from a leather supplier.
in the past I've used upholstery leather which is pretty thin (1-2mm), and average for stretchiness. For this, my Scientific wild ass guess for stretch is to remove an extra 1/8" of grip curcumferenceand about a half inch of wheel curcumferenceoff each piece (for 1" total removed)
The leather I'm using this time is a oil-tanned leather, and it's about 3x thicker. Plus the 60-wheel has a pretty big difference in the hills and valleys of the nobs on the dash side for grip. So I'm going to take a bit more out. 1/4" of grip curcumferencebut double the 1/2 on each piece for total curcumference. This is risky in that I might not be able to get the stitches to fully close and have to come back and tighten them later, or even remake the whole thing. There will be ludicrous amounts of stretch around the outside, just because stretch is a % and a % of 50" is going to be more than a % of 2.5" I can grab a 3" wide pice of this oil tan and get about 1/4" just with my hands. So it's pretty stretchy.
If you are using a tooling/ oak tan leather with no stretch, i'd put the leather on wet and remove the stretch allowance by half again.
Here is a video of a guy using Tooling leather for his. I'd go with a stretchier leather, because it's more forgiving.
the best way to be 100% sure to cut about 3" of leather the width of your final project, punch holes along the two edges like the real thing, and then stitch it onto your wheel as tightly as you can and let it sit for about a day and see if ends touch on the inside of the steering wheel. The Texas heat in the car will shrink things a bit for me so if it's pretty close I'm good, if you are in Alaska you might need very different tolerances.
I have gobs of leather and am setting the first one up to cut on the laser, so I'm going with my SWAG, I suggest you do the test piece just to reduce your uncertainties.
Here is a quick and dirty video so you can evaluate the stretch of your leather.
Google Photos - https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPRd2bCDZ1qK6ZkSbKlnqEURZFuf6XcmF8zGueU
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