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Re: steering wheel resto

To: John & Diane Voice <drjev@dccnet.com>
Subject: Re: steering wheel resto
From: Robert Melusky <tigerknut66@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 12:22:28 -0700 (PDT)
John,
The original finish was some sort of plastic or epoxy base material that was 
impervious to any paint remover and I ended up chipping it off flake by flake.  
I then used a UV inhibited polyurethane and put on a number of coats and used 
very fine steel wool in between to build up a coating that was similar to the 
thick finish used by the factory. Thin the last coat and let it flow out nice 
and smooth in a dust free location and it will look great.
 
If the wood is split, as mine was, I used a very slow cure epoxy and filled the 
inside with the material and then I took some strong cotton string and wound it 
all around the wheel nice and tight, just like whipping a rope. It takes a lot 
of time to do this so slow cure (I used 12 hour)
 is important. It is a mess as the stuff oozes out when you snug it down. Just 
unwind the string after it cures and sand it down and you are ready to topcoat. 
Mine looks great after 17 years.
 
If you have hub cracks open them up and fill them. With any crack one trick is 
to drill a hole at the end of the crack and this will stop it from spreading. I 
had some major shrinkage and had to reconstruct the end of the hub closest to 
the dash as it looked like a flat tire. I used epoxy putty and built up the 
gap, shaped it with a wood file and sanded it smooth. I painted the hub black 
and it still looks great too and you would never know the wheel was a basket 
case.
 
Bob Melusky
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