project luxury

[franklin40]

so we all know we drive luxury suvs but with awesome ability. well one item in my luxury vehicle i thought i would like to add was a heated steering wheel. for those who live in a cold climate and have used a heated steering wheel it really is a nice touch. i know you’re thinking “but it’s summer”. well it’s taking me two years of planning, collecting parts and then finally getting time to put it together

so here goes.

i bought some carbon tape from Carbon tape

i also bought kapton tape to hold the carbon tape around the wheel. i got it off amazon

then i got some silver epoxy from atom adhesive. one tube is enough.

next i got a wheel cover from wheel skins. be ware that the listing on their site for fj62 is crap. i even questioned them and they said we do have that vehicle listed. i showed them their website page and never heard back. in the end my recommendation is to measure your own wheel and get a custom wrap. mine was too wide so i had to cut it and reflux the edges. then i used a leather punch and remade the holes

lastly i had a slip ring made by a friend who owns a machine shop. he hesitated to me for free which was sweet. it’s made of brass and the spring pin is just a horn pin for the fj62.

lastly will be the switch which i’m still deciding on

the first epoxy didn’t work. it was the wrong stuff so don’t use the stuff in the first photo. use the exact stuff in the amazon picture. it worked great

this website is where i got my ideas from…

Carbon Tape Heated Steering Wheel

Carbon Tape Heated Steering Wheel: We must be especially careful when driving. In winter we often have to drive with gloves, while the steering wheel is not warmed up enough. Of course this affects the safety. Make your steering wheel heated to improve your safety! You can easily do …

www.instructables.com

 

[franklin40]

i then soldered a wire to the slip ring and used some urathane to glue it to the steering wheel. the only thing that isn’t full reversible is that i drilled a small hole to get the wire to the front of the wheel.

next i glued the wires to the tape. i needed two strips to cover the whole wheel. it also gives more power having two parallel circuits. we’ll see if it works. i could have used slightly
smaller wire like 18 g. i used 16 which shows up a bit through the leather.

the tape was then wrapped around the wheel using the kapton tape to hold it in place.

next the wheelcover was stretched over the wheel and threaded.

i needed three needles and i suggest wearing gloves to get the thread tight. cuts in the side of the fingers look small but they hurt every time you pull the next stitch tight.

 

[franklin40]

so that’s where i am so far. ill mount the spring pin to the steering column and wire in a switch. the ground can go straight to the wheel like the horn circuit. a little electric grease will help the slip ring move smoothly as with the horn pin. ill put an inline fuse in place too to protect the circuit. when i get it finished i’ll post up how it works. in all it cost me about $200 canadian i think

 

[franklin40]

forgot to show the epoxy gluing the wire to the cloth

 

[franklin40]

wiring of the wheel done. ill post more when i get the under dash stuff done

the short segment of wire behind the wheel can’t be hidden without cutting the pad which i don’t want to do. at least until i can confirm it all works

 

[franklin40]

the leather isn’t exactly the right colour but it’s close enough

 

[franklin40]

ok so i got really delayed finishing this project. i can’t believe it’s been 6 years in the making!! i had a ton of engine issues and drivability stuff to sort out then i built a house so these kinds of things got put on the back burner.

anyway i got it working tonight after all

so everything above is srull in play. now needed to get power to that extra ring.

my son printed me a mount that i could put on my steering column cover and run a horn pin to sent power to the wheel. i ran this trough an extra defrost switch i had. it grounds through the steering column like the horn does. some electrical grease should keep it running smoothly

the website i got the material
from suggests it’ll get to 77f which is 25C. well mine gets that hot. it’s not very cold right now so i can’t “feel” the heat today but maybe when it’s -25 it’ll feel better!

at least it works