Custom Leather Steering Wheel cover - A slow How To thread. (1 Viewer)

[caladin]

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

 

[kirvesmies]

@caladin , not being a dick, but the first 2 dimensions are the circumference, not diameter. i mean, damn, the steering wheel is wide across but not one out of a yacht! carry on

 

[caladin]

@caladin , not being a dick, but the first 2 dimensions are the circumference, not diameter. i mean, damn, the steering wheel is wide across but not one out of a yacht! carry on

You are correct, DOH!, fixed

 

[caladin]

Tools:
Note: I'm trying to build the Tool Kit as cheaply as possible using Amazon. This means cheap Chinese tools. You can absoloutely get better, longer lasting American made tools.

Required:
$10 leather repair kit...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8N8NLQC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

2x24 piece of thin, stretchy leather from amazon, or wherever. (around $30) I'm going to use stuff I have around the house, so this is excluded from my budget. (Veg tan shrinks when exposied to heat and uses chemicals you can get from plants, Chrome Tan does not, and uses nasty chemicals, I would not eat either kind)
Example leather, close but not identical to mine


This includes all the basics to do this job, aside from these tools/materials, I assume you have access to:
hammer or mallet (non steel preferred, wood or plastic mallet is perfect, deadblow is okay)
metal straight edge
sharpie
razor blade knife, or heavy scissors of some kind.
1-2 pair small needle nosed pliers

Optional, but 100% worth it, even just for this project, never to be used again:
You can do this project without these, but I recommend them, they make life WAAAY easier:

Hole punching chisels, I normally use smaller ones that just cut slits incited of holes, but this will make it easier to lace up later:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRBZV92S?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Punching Pad, goes behind leather when using punches above so they don't get messed up. I've used scrap leather and soft pine before)
https://a.co/d/1JEKwbj

Strap Cutter, if your leather already has a straight edge (like the 12x24 from amazon), this is the bomb for cutting rectangles off it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M5GJVR6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

How to assemble and use the strap cutter(youtube)

Optional, but make life easier, or upgrade the quality:
Contact Cement, hold the leather together when you stitch it. Makes sewing leather to leather 100% better and easier.
(This is only going to be used when stitching the 2 pieces ends together. )
https://a.co/d/05Z7tdv

Nicer waxed cord than what is in the kit. (What is in the kit will work 100% , this just looks nicer to my biased eyes)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSW5QLKF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share



Really, Really optional, but If you are kinda digging leather work, and going to do more, I highly recommend: (This item exceeds our proposed budget)
(If this is the only leather project you are going to do , just don't bother, but god are these the bomb $50)
Good Leather Cutting Shears (scissors) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BWD87XL?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Set of stitching chisels that leave a smaller hole(Less than $10)
Coufce 6mm Leather Hole Punch,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRBZV92S?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Set that leaves a slit ($11) this is nice when the stitching is going to be visible.

Either of these will work fine, I'm goign to use the top set, as ihave them here (rest of my leather tools are at the ranch)

 

[caladin]

Cutting the Straps
1. Assemble and the strap cutter
2. Set the strap cutter cutting thickness to be as thin/tight as you can and have the leather slide easily...(This is critical for accurate cutting)
3. Set the strap cutter width for 1/8" (3mm) to 1/4" (6mm) less than the Grip Circumference of the wheel. (1/4" for leather stretch with my soft leathers, I used 49mm)
4. Carefully start the strap cutter till enough is cut and sticking out the back you can grip it.
5. Cut the rest. (going to film a video of steps 2-6.)
6. Repeat if you are making a two piece wheel cover as I am.

Crappy Video of me using strap cutter.
Video

 

[caladin]

I had a few failures trying to get the grip diameter to match my leather stretch on a 70mm piece, using the cheap Amazon leather, ripping the leather on my second attempt, so I went back to basics, a 65mm, 70mm and 75mm test piece, because I bought new leather that is much stretcher, 65mm worked perfect

Going to cut a, single piece and try again soon.

 

[buoytech]

That is really great but I went with a Wheelskins kit and its been great since I installed it 4 years ago.

Which Wheelskin size for an FJ60

What is the correct size for a Wheelskin wrap for a stock '87 FJ60 steering wheel? The circumference of the grip is pretty small and I don't want to have extra material overlapping in the inside. Thanks.

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[caladin]

Then I guess I'll not bother with the tutorial, it's a lot more work than just doing one for myself.I'd never have used the Amazon leather, I just used it to make this more accessible to folks who've never done this kind of thing. I have plenty of good stretchy leather that works effortlessly.

Thought it might be interesting, since it's, a 1 banana, project

In case anyone cares, Here's how to stitch the ends of the pieces together to make a ring.


Here's how to stitch it to a wheel.


With those two pieces of information and the bits above, there is enough to figure it out for yourself.

 

[caladin]

Here is what it looked like when done, since I picked the leather, it's soft and butter smooth