[Healeys] Steering wheel restoration

[i erbs]

What about chips in the hub paint. Any ideas on matching the black
thickness?

Ira Erbs
Portland,OR
      _______                                  _______
     (______ \____1959 BN4____/ _______)
         (_________________________)
          BT7 engine and disk brakes

On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 6:32 PM, Curtis Arndt <cnaarndt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All
>
> I have to agree with John Spaur and Michael Salter that restoring an
> original wheel is hit and miss at best.  It is so difficult that both Roger
> Moment and Don Fisher recast their wheels on the original frames versus
> trying to repair/restore them.  Don is not only a dentist but has taught at
> the UCLA dental school for over 50 years, so casting the wheel was not
> difficult for him.  The same with Roger whose fabrication skills are second
> to none and his recast wheel was nothing short of brilliant.  BTW Roger
> initially repaired his wheel and it cracked again in short order which is
> why he re-cast it.
>
> Also as the trafficator/Bakelite expert I can state the the steering
> wheels were NOT Bakelite but plastic.  See attached photos of my restored
> '55 BN1 wheel that never had any cracks whatsoever.  I just lightly sanded
> and polished the rim and painted the hub with a high quality epoxy enamel.
>
> Better yet, buy a correct period wooden wheel from Michael Lempert as I
> also have one of his wheels for my car.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Curt Arndt
> Carlsbad, CA
> '55 BN1, '60 AN5 :{)
>
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Michael Salter <michaelsalter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> "I would not recommend restoring the original plastic steering wheels when
>> excellent reproductions are available."
>> I would have to concur with John on that. However, if you are looking to
>> restore a very early 100 wheel, either adjustable or non adjustable  17"
>> diameter or a 16 1/2" non adjustable wheel they are unavailable in
>> reproductions so extreme measures are called for!!!
>> The last wheel that I restored using the acetone method, suggested to me
>> by Bob Yule BTW, was on #174 andthe result was good enough to score
>> concours gold at Gettysburg and shows no signs of cracking  3 years after I
>> finished restoring it.
>> I believe that the real problem is that the plastic used to make these
>> wheels originally tends to shrink over time and eventually cracks appear to
>> relieve the resulting tensile stress.
>> In my experience any filler material, other than the original, fails to
>> bond strongly and as a result cracks appear at the material boundaries very
>> quickly.
>>
>> Just sayin'
>>
>> Michael S
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 5:03 PM, John Spaur <jmsdarch at sbcglobal.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I would not recommend restoring the original plastic steering wheels when
>>> excellent reproductions are available.
>>>
>>> The reason the plastic has cracked is because water has penetrated the
>>> wheel
>>> and it has started to oxidize the metal reinforcement which has expanded
>>> and
>>> cracked the wheel. That process may of slowed down, but it will never
>>> stop.
>>>
>>> I stored an original wheel in my garage for several years intending to
>>> restore it. It appeared to be in the same reasonable shape when I went to
>>> inspect it in preparation for restoration. When I pull at parts of it
>>> that
>>> looked to be in good shape, it  just crumbled in my hands.
>>>
>>> John Spaur
>>> '62 BT7
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> *If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.*
>>
>>
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>>
>
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