Prep wise I just cleaned it with purple power a few times and then alcohol before spraying it.
I used 2 coats for everything primer, color, and clear. I thought about rigging up a dowel of some kind to hold it up and be able to paint both sides at once but ended up using a camera stand and then a couple jacks to flip it back and forth.
The rustoleum high fill primer worked really well smoothing out the high wear areas along the wheel and did a great job filling in some smaller scratches. I ran out and just used whatever other primer I had on hand.
Used the Behr black satin premium spray paint because it was on sale at HD. It turned out as nice as I wanted.
Rustoleum 2x satin clear to finish it off. I’ve used the automotive rustoleum clear on other parts and it doesn’t play nice consistently every time I have used it so I tried the non auto clear this time. The 2x sprays on heavy just a warning I had one run that screwed a section up otherwise it worked well.
The epoxy I tried something different using the gorilla glue ultimate epoxy. My cracks were pretty minor and I didn’t want to break out the dremel and cut it out to fill it in with more putty style epoxy like PC7 which is frequently recommended. The gorilla glue is more of a liquid epoxy and I wanted to see if it would push in more easily to fill the cracks as they were. It worked in some places and others it didn’t. Might have been my garage was on the cold side. Or I didn’t get it on quickly enough in some places instead of making another batch. The places it worked I sanded it down with 800 grit. The places it didn’t work basically peeled off. If I had more free time I would’ve tried the gorilla epoxy again or the pc7 but my two little kids keep the free time to a minimum these days.
The wheel wrap has been frequently mentioned on here the past few months which is how I saw it and everyone seems to like it including myself. You can get it on amazon link is below size xl1. Baseball stitch ended up looking pretty clean and tight. Between the wheel wrap and the horn button most of the wheel imperfections are out of sight anyways.
Leather Steering Wheel...
Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084Q4LJQ4?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
I also looked at refurbished wheels and I know
@Birdhead does a great job for a fair price as well. He has also posted info on mud regarding his process for refreshing these wheels. In the end I’m cheap, found the wheel used on a rusted out 55 locally for $100 then between paint, epoxy, and the wrap I’m in it for about $140.
forum.ih8mud.com
job.
