It was -8 here this past weekend and way to cold for me to be out in the pole barn. I was bored out of my mind by Saturday afternoon so I went out for 10 minutes and pulled the steering wheel for a quick restoration/cleanup. I did not take any before pics but you all know what these 50 year old work truck wheels look like. the hub was in 3 pieces and completely detached from the metal. There were major cracks where the spokes attached to the ring and of course the ring was full of small cracks all the way around. I started by epoxying the hub pieces back to the metal center metal and clamping. Once that was dry I started filling the cracks with a fiberglass filler. There was also a couple low spots in the ring where a suicide **** had been at one point. Lots and Lots of hand sanding followed by 2 coats of primer finished up Saturday and Sunday. Last night when I got home I wet sanded the primer with 400 and put the wheel in front of my wood stove to dry. A coat of semi gloss black followed and back to the wood stove to bake. This is the final product. Not perfect but very usable. Now I just have to figure the horn wiring (someone put a button the the dash) out and get a horn ring. This will work just fine till we get to the body work and paint and almost no investment other than time.

 

Looks great man, nice work!

Props for the DIY.

You had commented on a post from me about my 66 gauge cluster clean up.

Thinking I am going to do that same gun bluing on my front grill.

Aaron

 

Nice work. Did you try to find and use a "hard" paint that would better stand up to rings and buttons etc.?
Eric

 

Thanks. I was not going for a perfect restoration. I did the wheel for my 68 Firebird and they come out pretty good. The main issue is even if you fix all the cracks in the ring the rest of the plastic is old and brittle and may crack at any time. I was just filling some dead time and buying some time until I putchase one of the repop wheels.

I remember that post. That bluing will be interesteing on the grill. I will be watching to see the results. Our grill is pretty dented up. 64 grills in good shape are hard to come by and pricey.

 

I did not. The interior of the truck is red but someone had painted the wheel black a long time ago. I was even thinking about taking some 600 to it to make it look old and worn. The main goal here was to make it stay in one piece.