My 52 Ford truck steering wheel has started to disintegrate ever so slightly. Every time I touch it with my hands, they get dirty with a super fine black powder that takes a scrubbing to completely remove from my hands. It looks like the previous operators had a ring of sorts that had rubbed through the polished layer and finally after all these years is starting to powder up. I know there are reproduction steering wheels around for $200 + shipping, but since I have no major cracks or other issues with the wheel, I was wondering if I could preserve it with a clear coat, varnish, epoxy of some kind, or what have you with the goal of keeping my hands clean and preserving the wheel.

 

On my 54 I had the same problem with my hands getting black. I used scotch brite to clean the when then applied a coat of minwax polyurethane. I did this about 10 years ago and it has held up. I can drive without getting my hands black.

 

Mike, did you use a hobby brush and apply by hand or did you somehow spray it on?
Tom


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I used a piece of foam soaked in polyurethane and rubbed it on. I used 2 or 3 very light coats.

 

I used POR five years ago with good results.

 

Scuff the outer surface of the wheel and paint with a good gloss black paint.

 

Scuff with Scotch brite? What color ?

 

With all this scuffing, do we need to worry about asbestos filler?

 

Like Ray said, just paint it. Rattle can is fine, but let it dry fully before using. I rattle canned the wheel in my COE gloss white(it was red) and it is holding up nicely.

 

I don't think there would be an issue with asbestos all though I might be wrong. It looks more like a product called bakelite. This was used before plastic as we know it now. The above posted testimonials are awesome and in
formative based on experience. I thought I would give mine a little fine sanding and give it a squirt of Trem Clad gloss.