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Steering Wheel Re-wrap


Guest ArcticOne

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Guest ArcticOne

My 1980 SC needs a new leather wrapping. Tried the auto upholstery shop here in Medicine Hat and they said they don't do that. So, some questions for others in the big city.

 

Any recommended shops in Calgary that would re-wrap the wheel?

 

Alternatively, is this an easy enough DIY project? I have done a bit of sewing over my life, but not sure how difficult doing a wheel would be.

 

Finally, does the wheel have to come off or can the re-wrap be done in situ?

 

Thanks

 

jb

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My DIY experience with my old Supra wheel: I bought a pre-cut, pre-punched leather piece from a company called Alan Gun leather (or somthing like that) out of Florida (they specilize in re-wrapping wheels). It came cut to the pattern specifically for the steering wheel for the production year for my car, and included the needle and color matching thread. I believe it is a small shop: I spoke to Alan on the phone when i ordered it.

It was a lot of work to get it even close to looking good. I took the wheel off which made it easier to get the wrap even from front to back, but then made it hard to hold when pulling the thread tight. Keeping the thread tension even all the way around is the hardest part: the leather will stretch and then you end up with extra (wrinkles) by the time you are back to where you started.

 

Then you pull out the thread and start again. In the end the wheel looked much better since the leather (or what Toyota called "leather" in the 80's) was no longer cracked and worn out, but it did not look like a factory quality job.

 

If you can find someone that you trust to do a good job I would recommend paying them. But if you are REALLY patient... good luck.

 

Cheers,

John

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Keith Adams
There was a thread on the Early 911S board of a guy re-covering his own steering wheel (and I'll be damned if I can put my figners on it).. It is quite a time consuming process, thus you find shops that either don't want to do it, or your heart skips a beat when you hear the price. I spoke to Mark Allen from Vintage Seats a few years back and I seem to recall he said it took his guy about 10 hours to recover a thick grip RSR steering wheel.
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Guest ArcticOne

On Pelican the only place that seems to get mentioned is down in Dallas. Not ready for the loss of the wheel for a month or so. Plus the recovering was in the $350 ish range.

 

I can likely live with the price, but was hoping for something closer to home. Might also simply buy a replacement wheel as good ones on eBay are in the 200 - 350 ish range.

 

jb

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