I have always thought most steering wheels are to small for my liking,the LC & LX fall into this category. I know, LX has wood but for me a high quality all leather wheel is more comfy and more grippy.One of the first things I do when acquiring a new rig is slap a leather hide on preferably buffalo hide. Anyone out there wanting to upgrade their steering wheel Ill run you through the process but in return maybe one of you kind folks could run me through the picture posting process from an I phone and I'll show you my wheel,until then it's all talk,and yes I am not smarter than a 5th grader, at least with a cell phone!
Steering Wheel upgrade
- Thread starter Backcountry pinstrip
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My steering wheel needs a recovering pretty bad. Interested to see your process.
My steering wheel needs a recovering pretty bad. Interested to see your process.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks for the info
I spent an hour doing the first part of a steering wheel upgrade and it disappeared into the ether.
Tools needed:sharpe scissors razor blades foam padding or double sided brown sticky tape curved tip needle nose pliars 2 or 3 Glovers needles oo size leather(preferably buffalo or bull hide) heavy waxed thread and a lighter.
Decide weather you want a padded wheel or unpadded. A good rule of thumb is to put your index and thumb together making a circle this will be app. The size of unpadded wheel, thumb and middle finger is app. Size of a padded wheel your choice. Tape the wheel like you would a baseball bat handle this keeps your leather from moving after sewed on. The foam is similar as you tighten the leather by sewing it compresses the foam and keeps the leather from shifting. Make sure you get the foam that is sticky on one side cut to size before removing sticky side cover you can put the sticky side to the leather or apply to the wheel your choice. Keep it smooth any wrinkles will come through on your finished product. The 4 inch wide foam works perfect for the 100 series..
I buy my leather in full hides so you may want to go in with mudder bro or sister and share a hide or you may just use it on your other cars you may not want to drive a car without one. The hide could cost anywhere from the low 100s to 250 depending on size. Lay the hide out and look for surface cut and abrasions you want as many clean 4 inch plus wide strips 4 ft long. This is for the simple install if you want to do the spokes 8 inch wide by 4 ft is what you need. I think will go with the simple wheel skin type designs, doing the spokes your first try may cause you to send me some PM s. with multiple four letter words. We don't want that this is supposed to be fun, right. Use your sharpe scissors to. Cut a 4 plus inch wide strip the whole length of th hide sometimes 7 to 8 feet long I use protractor to mark the leather for cutting, an option would be to have it cut at the leather store they have better scissors than you to cut the buffalo hide you just need to get it close ,the rest of the cutting you will use a new razor blade on.
I spent an hour doing the first part of a steering wheel upgrade and it disappeared into the ether.
Tools needed:sharpe scissors razor blades foam padding or double sided brown sticky tape curved tip needle nose pliars 2 or 3 Glovers needles oo size leather(preferably buffalo or bull hide) heavy waxed thread and a lighter.
Decide weather you want a padded wheel or unpadded. A good rule of thumb is to put your index and thumb together making a circle this will be app. The size of unpadded wheel, thumb and middle finger is app. Size of a padded wheel your choice. Tape the wheel like you would a baseball bat handle this keeps your leather from moving after sewed on. The foam is similar as you tighten the leather by sewing it compresses the foam and keeps the leather from shifting. Make sure you get the foam that is sticky on one side cut to size before removing sticky side cover you can put the sticky side to the leather or apply to the wheel your choice. Keep it smooth any wrinkles will come through on your finished product. The 4 inch wide foam works perfect for the 100 series..
I buy my leather in full hides so you may want to go in with mudder bro or sister and share a hide or you may just use it on your other cars you may not want to drive a car without one. The hide could cost anywhere from the low 100s to 250 depending on size. Lay the hide out and look for surface cut and abrasions you want as many clean 4 inch plus wide strips 4 ft long. This is for the simple install if you want to do the spokes 8 inch wide by 4 ft is what you need. I think will go with the simple wheel skin type designs, doing the spokes your first try may cause you to send me some PM s. with multiple four letter words. We don't want that this is supposed to be fun, right. Use your sharpe scissors to. Cut a 4 plus inch wide strip the whole length of th hide sometimes 7 to 8 feet long I use protractor to mark the leather for cutting, an option would be to have it cut at the leather store they have better scissors than you to cut the buffalo hide you just need to get it close ,the rest of the cutting you will use a new razor blade on.
- Thread starter
- #4
Now your ready to size your leather,look at your leather it will be different thickness depending on what part of the animal it was on for instance the neck section is sometimes 2 to 3 times as thick and really grainy if you try to match the neck area with main body of leathe one end will be to thick so keep this in mind it try to have your two mating sections of leather of similar thickness. Place your length of leather over your steering wheel determine where the leather is app the same thickness and cut off one end and square it up. Pull the leather tight to the 6 o'clock position on your wheel match up with your cut off end give your self and extra inch or so and cut that end off. Keep what's left over to cover the gearshift with your new found sewing talent. This is important when you finish sewing the two ends together make sure your leather is stretched on tight this will keep you from having bulges and to much leather to tighten when your close to finishing. To begin your sewing you will need to make a leather bobbin cut two pieces the shape of a u without the center cut make it larger than your thumb an sew on the unfinished side around the edge turn Inside out and see how it fits your thumb this is what you push your Glovers needle through the leather with you push it far enough to grab with the pliers and use your other thumb to push the pliers till the needle exits I know this sounds hard but it save s your Carple tunnel and makes the whole process easier iam sure you will pull a few though without pushing the pliers if you do whole wheel like that you'll pay for it later. Crack a beer go inside and sew the two end together. Star by putting the two finished edges together, knot the end of your waxed thread leaving a quarter inch left,light the end let it melt towards your knot extinguish right before it melts your knot keeps your knot from coming loose. Make sure both ends of leather are same width and plunge your needle through both pieces 3/8 inch from the edge 1/4 in from end,put the needle through pull with pliers bring thread over the back towards u and plunge again keep your stitches spaced equally and continue till you are 3/8 from the end finish with knot burn it to seal.
- Thread starter
- #5
I have the image in my attached files but I still can't post on this page why do they call this a smart phone?
- Thread starter
- #6
Looky there I have an image. I guess my phone is smart. Thanks again for the help does the wheel peek your interest
Nice work! How's about I send you my tired 250k mile wheel? PM if you'd even consider doing am unpadded one for a fellow Mudder.
...via IH8MUD app
...via IH8MUD app
- Thread starter
- #8
Ok your ready to start sewing almost, place the seam at 6 on your wheel stretch the leather up over the top of the wheel was it hard to get over the top, if so you have done a good job if you don't have to grunt a little it's not tight enough cut off your seam and resew try again it should be tight check to make sure the leather almost touches edges all the way around the wheel don't worry if they touch you can trim as you go. The seam is going to be tighter because you have the extra 1/4 inch of the seam sticking against the wheel, this is where you notch the foam at 6 o'clock on the wheel so the seam nestles between the foam without foam you will have a small bulge,remember you are with leather 5 to 10 times as thick as that gimpy stuff put on at the factory. If you applied the foam to the leather instead of the wheel you will have pulled it back while sewing seam and then cut foam to fit right up to seam on both sides. Take 2 Glovers needles and thread one into each end of 20 in of waxed thread.(waxed thread keeps the thread held in the eye of the needle nylon thread will cut your leather and fall out of the needles eye enough to frustrate anyone) Put left hand needle through last hole in seam same with right needle in opposite end seam hole now pull both toward you and thread through the seam hole in leather closest to you we will refer to this as the bottom and the side closest to dash as top. Can you pull the seam together? If not pull leather off top of wheel and this will release some pressure so you can close the gap once you are able to do this check how the leather is matching up to much leather in your first couple stitches will probably be the case so take razor pull the leather up and with a slight sawing motion trim the leather leave just a little tail on the leather so when you trim more you have something to hold. Try to cut top and bottom evenly making sure you don't cut leather at an angle you want the seam to come together evenly. Sew from 6 to 7 and 6 to 5 a couple stitches at a time this is the hardest part and most important and continue until you reach the spokes on either side, stop a few stitches from the spokes and wrap the extra wax thread around the wheel into a loose knot on both sides this is for tightening the leather when you finish. Turn wheel to left and turn off engine when spokes are centered at 6 o'clock you will be doing All of the sewing will be done between 530 and 630 just keep spinning the steering wheel as you sew. As you sew the tendency is to to take bigger bites out of the leather on one side than the other if this is happening you will have to take bigger or smaller bites depending on weather the top or bottom has slack. Try keeping your stitches about a1/4 inch apart you have about 300 to do so be patient
- Thread starter
- #9
Interesting Two replys from Va my old stomping grounds. Can you say Oakton
I am impressed with the work. Not sure I have the patience.
(Oh, and I am also from Virginia.)
(Oh, and I am also from Virginia.)
Oakton is nice country. I bet your Oregon address has better views 
Seriously, your work on that wheel would be the perfect fix for my well worn wheel. The leather is not yet through, but its getting thin in a couple of places.
Seriously, your work on that wheel would be the perfect fix for my well worn wheel. The leather is not yet through, but its getting thin in a couple of places.
- Thread starter
- #12
So lets finish You have sewn the bottom section both sides of the seam spinning the wheel counter clockwise start on the narrow section between the spokes try to get the leather as tight as possible when bringing top and bottom together you only get to tighten at the end of each run of thread so make your starting stitch pretty tight when you finish this section. Leave a section of waxed thread 8 inches long and wrap and loosely Ty in the spoke section. Now your ready for the long run a cross the top of the wheel,give yourself plenty of thread the worst part is running out of thread on this run, don't do it. Your sewing skills will already be improving and if you haven't left any blood on leather from stabbing yourself with the needle,pat yourself on the back. It's a long run and one you can make mistakes on,keep the front and back even along the sewing line when the steering wheel has gone all the way CC and your not sewing comfortably spin the wheel C till you get to the 6 o'clock position and finish the run. Make sure when you spin the wheel that your thread you have tied in several locations don't get Tangled spin the wheel slowly or you could have a mess.get to the end of long run and leave room for 2 or3 stitches to tighten, move on to your last spoked section this where you see if you we're tight enough when you started sewing. You want the sewing around the spokes to be equal so don't take to big a bite of leather whenever you start a new section or you won't be able to mesh the leather together when tightening at the end. Tighten left to right work your way around the wheel putting 2 or 3 stitches . Knot and burn the thread as it melts use your lighter to smooth out melting thread. Good luck Any misspelling can be blamed solely on a big thumb.
That turned out great!