Fixing up an old wooden steering wheel

[festy]

Recently I was given an old aftermarket wooden steering wheel with an Alfetta boss.
It had seen better days - the varnish was flaking off in big chunks, the wood was stained and starting to split, the boss was shedding its paint and the bolts were rusty.
 

But the good points - it was straight, the cracks weren't too bad, and its an early 80s Sport Line wheel so its a legit period accessory for my gtv so I thought it was worth trying to save.
Well, that and I was procrastinating finishing another project, so this would make a good distraction!

Most of the varnish came off pretty easily, but a few spots still put up quite a fight.
The wood was weather stained under all the big cracks in the varnish, which mostly disappeared with a light sanding.
Sport Line are still in business and they make some really nice mahogany wheels - but I guess this isn't one of them 




So off to Bunnings for the finest mahogany stain $12 can buy 
It initially looked very purple and unnatural, but too late now...


Over then next couple of days I applied half a dozen coats of a wipe-on satin polyurethane sealer, because that's what I had on the shelf already. And buying the stain had really blown the project budget out  
It was starting to look a bit more reasonable now.



 

[festy]

The old paint came off the boss easily with a razor blade, and was repainted gloss black (again, because that was what I had on hand)

I hit the little bolts with rust converter - but then rather than paint them just to then have the paint chip off immediately (or fill up the 3mm hex recesses) I 'blued' them by heating the heads up and quenching in old motor oil. This gives a much tougher finish than paint.

Last piece I needed was a horn button. Scouring ebay, the cheapest I found was a Nardi cap ex china for $12. Well, that just doubled my investment 

[hammer]

Good job. Thanks for the pics.

[MD]

Hey festy, I can see a pre-Christmas line outside your front gate with a wood steerer under the wing frantically looking for that signs the says, "Leave it here" (and the usual disclaimers)

Turning to the close cousin of the steerer, the instrument cluster. I have made plenty of false starts to juxtapose the tachometer with the speedometer in the split dash set up. Know any examples of who may have tread that path before and got home?

[festy]

Turning to the close cousin of the steerer, the instrument cluster. I have made plenty of false starts to juxtapose the tachometer with the speedometer in the split dash set up. Know any examples of who may have tread that path before and got home?

You'd need a good eye for detail to spot that my tach install wasn't factory