Wood Steering Wheel Scratch...

[leej]

Hi all

I realized this may be more of a wood working question, but I'm still hoping someone will have a good recommendation on how to fix a deep scratch in my wooden steering wheel.

Last year my leather steering wheel in our Land Cruiser was looking tired again (I had recovered it a few years ago with wheel skins), and I decided to take the plunge and order a wooden wheel from ebay from Taiwan (I think I paid $200 or $300). I'm not actually sure this is wood, or even wood veneer, it is probably painted plastic or something else, but I LOVE the wooden wheel (not that I didn't have any other wood trim, so it wasn't a problem matching the fake wood to my other trim). I have been really happy with this wheel (both looks and feel) and recommend it! As others have said, I think it even increased horsepower and MPG (kidding).

HOWEVER, I accidentally hit my precious steering wheel yesterday and now have a 1/2 inch seep scratch that I can feel with my fingers, and it is driving me CRAZY...

See picture below:

The scratch has damaged the outer finish and I believe I need to fill it with something and then try to buff it back smooth. I'm not so much worried about hiding the scratch as much has making it feel smooth.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions on how to repair this without having to completely sand and refinish this whole wheel?

Lee
2004 LX
2000 LC

 

[DarkPharf]

Following. Oddly, I have the same scratch. Had it for 7 years. Maybe I will fix it if there is some good advice. My thought is epoxy resin, then sand and buff.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

I would take a dremel, clear out the damaged area, tape around it, then fill it with some instant set CA glue (two part, glue and accelerator spray) and then sand flush and polish

Cyanoacrylate: Everything You Need to Know - Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To
https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/tipstechniques/finishing-ca-glue

 

[Biga27110]

in

 

[atnolan94]

I don’t have any advice, I just came here to say I’m glad someone else loves wood wheels. I have the same eBay one, but in general, I absolutely love wood wheels. I’m a sucker for a wood wheel and it literally could sway my car-buying decision.

The quality on this eBay wheel is honestly really impressive.

 

[gatormark91]

I would take a dremel, clear out the damaged area, tape around it, then fill it with some instant set CA glue (two part, glue and accelerator spray) and then sand flush and polish

Cyanoacrylate: Everything You Need to Know - Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To
Finishing with CA Glue - Canadian Woodworking Magazine

CA glue won't hold up there. Use a clear epoxy. Fill the scratch, then go to the local beauty store and buy a variety of those soft foam nail sanding sticks (get a blue colored one, a peach one, and the one with 3 shades of grey and white). Use those to sand it down, then use one of the grey/white tri-grit ones to get it smooth. Then use plastic polish for the final polish to gloss.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

CA glue won't hold up there. Use a clear epoxy. Fill the scratch, then go to the local beauty store and buy a variety of those soft foam nail sanding sticks (get a blue colored one, a peach one, and the one with 3 shades of grey and white). Use those to sand it down, then use one of the grey/white tri-grit ones to get it smooth. Then use plastic polish for the final polish to gloss.

Why? It's simply a filler application, you don't need something with a high tensile strength. A clear epoxy will be stronger, but you aren't bonding anything. All you need is adhesion (which CA glue will do just fine as long as you clean the area) and CA glue will do it faster (no waiting for cure).

Are you concerned about it yellowing with UV exposure? Most of the UV will be cut when you go through the glass (why you don't get sunburned IN the car) and a clear epoxy (unless you specifically get one with UV resistance) is going to yellow just the same.

 

[gatormark91]

Why? It's simply a filler application, you don't need something with a high tensile strength. A clear epoxy will be stronger, but you aren't bonding anything. All you need is adhesion (which CA glue will do just fine as long as you clean the area) and CA glue will do it faster (no waiting for cure).

Are you concerned about it yellowing with UV exposure? Most of the UV will be cut when you go through the glass (why you don't get sunburned IN the car) and a clear epoxy (unless you specifically get one with UV resistance) is going to yellow just the same.

CA without something to added to give it some more strength can have poor impact resistance. If you hit it with a ring or such, it can flake off. Also, using accelerator on CA makes it dry faster, but not as strong. I've just found that, for clear applications, getting a good clear dry from CA can be a pain to pull off. Just my preference, I guess, been using the stuff for applications like this for a long time.

 

[leej]

@Somebodyelse5 and @gatormark91 THANKS for your advice. I do agree that epoxy would be stronger, but I was afraid it would be thicker and harder to apply.

Ultimately, I used CA glue (I used plain fast drying, NOT the gel). The links that Somebodyelse5 provided on CA glue here and here were especially useful (and not just for this project).

Here is what I did:

1. I took a small dental pick and scraped it out a little. I thought about using a dremel to clean it as suggested above, but I was afraid I would make it bigger and mess up the "wood" look. I'm not really sure there is any real wood in this wheel, I suspect it is either paint, or maybe veneer or something else that looks like wood? In the picture in my original post, you can see black underneath the "wood". When I scraped it, I don't think I removed any material at all, but it made me feel better. Note that this scratch was fresh (yesterday), so there wasn't any oils or other dirt in there.

2. Next I took the CA glue and tried to put just one drop into the valley of the scratch. I had to use the tip of the glue bottle so spread the full length of the scratch, and of course I got more in there than I needed. When it dried (I did not use an accelerator, and I did not blow on it, just wait 5 minutes), it was sticking up quite a bit, and looked bad and I could definitely feel it. I was afraid the CA would mess up the clear gloss finish around the application, but it didn't!

3. I had some 3000 grit sand paper that I wet with a spray bottle and began rubbing/sanding perpendicular to the scratch (and in other directions). I was trying to only sand the small area around the scratch. I kept wiping the residue and wetting the sand paper, and sanding and sanding and sanding, going through a couple of strips of sand paper and this was hard and tedious. This made the finish on and around the scratch cloudy, but with a LOT of sanding, eventually it felt smooth to the touch and I believe I had a pretty even surface.

Note that it would have been better to use more coarse sand paper (maybe 800 or 1000), and then work up to 3000, but the 3000 was all that I had and it just took longer. Gatormark91's suggestion of fingernail sanding sticks would probably have been much better! I also though about using some of the sanding pads for refinishing headlights, but I didn't have any.

At this point, the spot around the scratch looked cloudy, and I was still nervous that it was not going to polish out. If you have refinished headlights, you know what I am talking about.

4. I then took some Meguiars Scratch X 2.0 (because this is what I had), and began polishing it. I suspect you could have used rubbing compound or any other scratch remover or polishing agent. This improved everything drastically, and I was starting to think that this might just work. I used the Meguiars 2 or 3 times, and it only took a minute or two. It was still very slightly hazy where I had sanded and polished (not sure anyone would have noticed but me), but the gloss finish was pretty close to the rest of the steering wheel.

5. Next I took some Meguiars Ultimate car wax (liquid wax that is pretty thin), and polished it some more. This took off the last bit of haze, and the finish looks like the rest of the wheel!

In the picture below, you can see some scratches/swirl marks, but these are not obvious to the naked eye, and really only showed up in the picture with the sun coming across the wheel. I think I could polish these out if it wanted, but I don't see them.

The scratch is still visible because of the black and slightly lighter browns, and there is a small place where I sanded a little too far, but you would be hard pressed to notice the scratch if I didn't show you where it was on the wheel. The different shades in the wood grain help hide more than in the picture. It is perfectly smooth where the scratch was, and you cannot feel it with your finger.

From start to finish, it took about 30 minutes. Overall, I am very happy with the results and would attempt this again.

I don't know how well the CA will hold up, or if with time the area I sanded will start to look bad, but I am certainly happy now!

Thanks again to the suggestions from Somebodyelse5 and gatormark91

Lee