Series 2 steering wheel home repair resin convert

[jagnut66]

Hi,
The other day, much to my annoyance, I discovered some fresh cracking to my 'good' steering wheel, caused I suspect by my steering lock (some homemade padding required there methinks.....). So, as the cracks were small and I have read up about doing this before I decided to have a go fixing them with some Araldite resin, whilst the steering wheel is removed from the car, ironically, so it doesn't get damaged whilst refurbishment / welding is going on......
Anyway, I set about repairing this one and noticed after that I had mixed too much up and had a large quantity left over, so I eyed up the original wheel hiding behind the chairs in the living room, badly cracked and, I thought, beyond the abilities of a 'back street tinkerer' like me and decided "why not?"........
I have mentioned this steering wheel before, in another post, enquiring about getting the frame stripped and remade, however for those who didn't see that, this is the damaged wheel 'before':

Cracked bakelite steering wheel 1.JPG (644.15 KiB) Viewed 60977 times

Cracked bakelite steering wheel 2.JPG (661.12 KiB) Viewed 60977 times

Cracked bakelite steering wheel 3.JPG (629.12 KiB) Viewed 60977 times

Needless to say the cracks were deeper than they looked at first and swallowed up copious amounts of Araldite over two sessions of filling, a day to harden, light sanding with wet and dry, more filling and left to harden for a day for a second time. This was followed my a final good sanding down, before I cleaned it off and gave it a light wipe with 3 in 1 oil.
Why?
Well having cleaned up / restored some period art deco bakelite handles for my home, I read somewhere that it was good for the bakelite, kind of like 'feeding' it. Don't ask me but it works for the handles in the house........
I then gave it a polish with some Autosol, which is usually excellent for cleaning / polishing bakelite items (as my black bakelite '50s telephones can testify to).
However I felt I needed something else with the steering wheel, something more 'fluid' that I could wipe round it, so to speak. And I came up with this marble polish that I had left over from when I reinstated my bedroom fireplace (cast iron bedroom fireplace, marble hearth):

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 5.JPG (850.19 KiB) Viewed 60977 times

It wipes round and polishes the steering wheel a treat.

Series 2 steering wheel after repairs.JPG (1.2 MiB) Viewed 60977 times

Below are the repairs themselves:

[jagnut66]

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 1.JPG (1.32 MiB) Viewed 60974 times

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 2.JPG (660.61 KiB) Viewed 60974 times

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 3.JPG (1.34 MiB) Viewed 60974 times

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 4.JPG (1.34 MiB) Viewed 60974 times

More work polishing is needed I think and I know, even then, this will never up to professional standards, however I'm posting this up to show what can be achieved at home, even by a novice like me, with a little time, effort and patience.
Go on, give it a go, if I can do it......
Also this is a marbled steering wheel, where repairs will always show to a degree anyway.
A black steering wheel could be repainted after the repairs, to hide them further.
And I now have a usable spare steering wheel for the future......
Right back to the polishing......
Best wishes,
Mike.

PS: I will also be repainting the gold centre, now I've repaired the wheel itself it's bugging me......

[stevey]

Excellent job, well done!

[jagnut66]

Well, the centre has now been rubbed down, cleaned and repainted, plus I have been giving the wheel a further polish.
I think I have taken it as far as I can and I have to admit to being quite pleased with it.
I feel I have taken it from junk to usable, which was the point of the exercise.
Also, as noted in the title, I am now a resin convert.
I would now be happy to attempt this again and actively encourage those with a dodgy wheel to give it a go before spending a fortune with a professional restorer, unless you are aiming for concourse of course.
That said, I reckon a black steering wheel could be done to an even higher standard by the home restorer, simply because you can cover your work better with a respray.
I have to say I love the marbling on these wheels, oddly though all the professional jobs I have seen, where the wheel is stripped of the original bakelite and remade in a mould, all seem to be of a plain colour and not marbled......
Are they still able to reproduce this effect?

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 6.JPG (1.32 MiB) Viewed 60876 times

Masked off and sanded / cleaned, ready for paint......

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 7.JPG (1.33 MiB) Viewed 60876 times

Gold once more and polished up again.

Series 2 steering wheel repairs 8.JPG (1.31 MiB) Viewed 60876 times

The one area that will never be perfect but it's an improvement on how it was at the start of this (if the wheel was black you could loose an area like this better).
Best wishes,
Mike.

[jagnut66]

Hi,
I have just done another steering wheel and thought I'd raise awareness of this topic again in light of the cost of replacing these with new or perfect originals, which seems to now cost in excess of £200!
I'm not going to go over it all again but suffice to say that the below was out of a car I bought, so no individual cost in itself, except time, effort, Araldite and paint for the centre.
These show it post repairs, having just been wiped over with a kitchen towell that I had folded and soaked in '3 in 1 oil'. I left this to 'soak in' overnight. I have done this before as it seems to 'feed' the bakelite, giving it back some of the oils that the plastic has lost over the decades. This wheel has since been polished, as described previously, it's centre rubbed down, etch primed (which I already had on my shelf) and repainted in a Halfords gold with lacquer on top -- a readily available and reasonably inexpensive close (or good enough anyway) match to what it would have been, before more oil and a going over with a polishing cloth.
It is now smooth in the hand and cost allot less than sourcing and shelling out on a 'decent' replacement.....
As before this was cracked, brittle and looked plain pale grey in colour before I did this.
Give it a go and save yourself a wedge of cash.
As I always say, if I can do this anyone can!
Best wishes,
Mike.

Grey Marbled bakelite steering wheel refurb 1.JPG (955.62 KiB) Viewed 59098 times

Grey Marbled bakelite steering wheel refurb 2.JPG (953.34 KiB) Viewed 59098 times

[myoldjalopy]

Very good, Mike. What grade wet 'n dry did you use and did you use it wet, or dry?

[firedrake1942]

Really interesting, did you add anything to the araldite in terms of colouring? My lowlight steering wheel is a pink marble. The cracks are mainly around the spoke areas.

[jagnut66]

Lovely colouring you have there, less common than the grey. I didn't use any colour additives for my grey wheels, it seems to blend in acceptably once rubbed down and polished, however for your one I would.
I wouldn't expect it to match exactly but it should end up just looking like part of the marbling effect.
1500 wet and dry would give a smooth finish, akin to the Autosol and stone polish that I use.
To remove the excess araldite and roughness of the aged bakelite I just used the coarse green sandpaper used for woodwork, I'm not sure of it's grading, so I'd say start with 500 and work from there.
Once your through the excess resin you can start to refine it.
Don't be tempted to 'peel' it off though (some bits on the surface may separate off as you sand), as you are likely to end up pulling more away than you intended and have to add more resin back in again. Persevere with the sandpaper.
Best wishes,
Mike.

[myoldjalopy]

I wonder if the araldite putty might be easier to work with instead of glue?

[geoberni]

Really interesting, did you add anything to the araldite in terms of colouring? My lowlight steering wheel is a pink marble. The cracks are mainly around the spoke areas.

A lot of people seem to follow the 'Araldite' route, which is an Epoxy Resin. As it's a fairly 'neutral' semi-translucent final colour, it seems to fit in with the grey steering wheels.
I wonder if an Epoxy Putty, such as Milliput might be an alternative and the colour selection, which can be mixed together, could offer you some options for colour matching.
It could be a little more expensive than a simple pack of Araldite, (depending which Araldite version you used) but the results might be better.
Perhaps mixing their Terracotta with either White or Grey to adjust the colour?.
https://www.milliput.com/

I used it a couple of years ago, mixing together their White and Black versions, to replace the damaged/missing lead on my parent's gravestone.
My mother died in 1984, so her lead work was in very poor condition after 40 years. Most of the remaining was loose, so all prised out and replaced.
Before and after close ups, Summer of 2022 and March 2024 after it was finished.
.

Leadwork.JPG (140.54 KiB) Viewed 58019 times

[svenedin]

Really interesting, did you add anything to the araldite in terms of colouring? My lowlight steering wheel is a pink marble. The cracks are mainly around the spoke areas.

A lot of people seem to follow the 'Araldite' route, which is an Epoxy Resin. As it's a fairly 'neutral' semi-translucent final colour, it seems to fit in with the grey steering wheels.
I wonder if an Epoxy Putty, such as Milliput might be an alternative and the colour selection, which can be mixed together, could offer you some options for colour matching.
It could be a little more expensive than a simple pack of Araldite, (depending which Araldite version you used) but the results might be better.
Perhaps mixing their Terracotta with either White or Grey to adjust the colour?.
https://www.milliput.com/

I used it a couple of years ago, mixing together their White and Black versions, to replace the damaged/missing lead on my parent's gravestone.
My mother died in 1984, so her lead work was in very poor condition after 40 years. Most of the remaining was loose, so all prised out and replaced.
Before and after close ups, Summer of 2022 and March 2024 after it was finished.
.
Leadwork.JPG

That is remarkable work. Well done indeed!

Stephen

[jagnut66]

I wonder if an Epoxy Putty, such as Milliput might be an alternative and the colour selection

Another option indeed, if I had a coloured wheel (other than grey -- or black) I would give it a try. The Terracotta coloured one might be a good choice for the one you have there 'Firedrake'. I have attached a link to them below.
As an aside, I would be inclined to give the wheel a light sand and a wipe with 3 in 1 oil in an area that doesn't require filling to see the depth of colours / marbling it reveals (mine was pale like that at the start). You can then match whatever you mix to an expected finished colouring.
I bet that wheel will look great when done, please attach some pictures for us.

The one other thing I would add though, is that Araldite is a glue / resin, so it will bond the 'separated' areas of bakelite well, I don't know the qualities of Milliput in this regard.
There are also separate colours for resin available to mix in, I've attached a link to an example below.
Best wishes,
Mike.

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DCh ... EEA&adurl=

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DCh ... EB4&adurl=

[Paladin1962]

Out of curiosity, I took a few minutes Sunday to try and remove the badly cracked Bakelite from one of my spare wheels, to no avail, much to my surprise! what remains is so solidly adhered to the frame, it is nigh impossible to shift. May resort to mechanical means to remove the stuff..... or, maybe not.