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The steering wheels in these trucks are notorious for cracking ... even the reproduction DC units do it after a few years:
I've seen people mention repairing theirs by using an epoxy or something to fill the cracks then repainting. I'm curious: what fillers have people used, and how did it turn out (and hold up)?
I cleaned the cracks out real well and used PC-7 epoxy. Then I sanded it down and had a buddy paint it at his body shop. It looks 95% compared to new, but is WAY better than being all cracked. I just installed it so not sure how long it'll last.
A 75 F-100 and a 70 Dodge Coronet. Both looked great for the first three months. Both are now showing small hairline cracks. I am in Massachusetts so its not really the heat. I don't think it was user error as I did follow directions and I did the wheels about a month apart. They have been done for about 1 year now.
It's been almost a year since I repaired and installed my wheel. It still looks awesome compared to the old cracked up crap, but I can most definitely see some hair line cracks forming. Again - still WAY better, but it is beginning to succumb to the heat. Just thought I'd post an update.
Question. Did you clean out the cracks with a dremel type tool or sand paper? With the cracking, I am wondering if it might be from contaminates not letting epoxy bond to the old plastic. Just curious as i want to try this also.
Well I won't throw my old one away. I have an NOS to go on it and when I need something to pass the time, I'll tinker with the old one with the epoxy. Shouldn't crack if wrapped and in cool inside storage. Aside from that, it isn't cracked as badly as yours was.
The 1970 and earlier ones must have been made better. My '62 unibody has the original on it and there are only 3 cracks all on the spokes by the horn ring and not that big.
Another vote for PC-7. I did a 57 Ford wheel 15 years ago...no cracks reappearing. I epoxy primed that wheel before painting, so maybe that made a difference or possibly the plastic was manufactured harder, less flexible at that time.
As follow-up, here's what I ended up doing. I'm satisfied with the results for my purposes. I used PC-7 and it worked pretty well - definitely an improvement over the gaping cracks, if not completely invisible; I'm not patient enough to sand it any smoother than this:
Originally Posted by bkaul
I filled the cracks in my steering wheel with PC-7 epoxy (suggested by others here) yesterday and cleaned it up today. The epoxy is putty-like going on, and sets up somewhat plastic. Fortunately, it doesn't adhere well on the surface of the plastic: I was able to gently scrape off the excess with a screwdriver/my fingernail before sanding:
Cleaned up and sanded with 600-grit. Ready to paint.
Originally Posted by bkaul
I also got the steering wheel painted. Looks better than before, though not perfect - mostly because I lack the patience for all the sanding involved in body work. If I'd put another layer of filler in on the wide cracks, and sanded it well, it would've probably come out even better. Still way better than gaping crevices in the wheel though:
Actually looks pretty good where there were small cracks - it's just the big ones that are still visible.
The back is more noticeable, but ... I don't really care
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