Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello everybody

Can somebody tell me of what material the spokes of the MM steering wheel are made?
My wheel was badly cracked, so I planned to keep the hub and spokes and make wood rim.
To fix the spokes to the rim, I thought to weld some small metal pieces to the spokes wich I could drill into the rim.
But welding seems to be hard, the spokes don't react as iron or stainless steel, so I'm curious about the metal.

I hope someone can tel me, or give me more options.

Greetings

I always thought they were stainless, but am also interested and willing to be educated!

I wonder if they are they made of Mazak? (zinc alloy) Quite a few grilles, badges etc were made of this

Could be Mazak, like the hub, but i doubt it.
The hub-metal seems to be much softer than the spokes.

I've always assumed they are made of chromed steel, maybe even a form of spring steel.

Surely Mazak wouldn't have any "give" in it?

Have you tried a magnet on it?

The wheel is at the welder now, can't check for magnetism right now but i assume the welder tried it.

i thought it was stainless, seemed to polish better with my stainless mop rather then alloy

I think the bit under the bakelite is some sort of cast iron, the bakelite on mine had almost completley flaked off leaving a rusty mess that certainly looked cast.

Unless you cut the spokes off at the top you would have to make a rim to cover the metal core that is already there.

Well, what I've done so far.
I've cut of the existing bakelite rim including the metal core and kept the whole length of the spokes.
Finally someone succeeded to weld a small iron rectangular piece on the end of the spokes wich will be used to screw the spokes onto the new wooden rim.
To make the wooden rim, I've glued 8 plates of 4mm plywood onto eachother, always in another direction to make it stronger.
Cutted out the rim with notches for the metal pieces. Next I'll have to screw the hub with spokes onto the rim, fill up the notches, sand down the rim untill its completely round, and give it a few layers of varnish.
Pictures will follow soon.

Finally someone succeeded to weld a small iron rectangular piece on the end of the spokes

Are you sure it's actually welded and not just cast around with weld?

Although it's been hard to get to this stage, you need to be sure that it is at least a strong as the original.

Those " OH excrement! " moments can be distressing at best, plain deadly at worst.

Gang carefully, is a phrase that spring to mind, for some reason.

Function over form, remember, function over form.

I'm quite sure about the strength of the whole thing, the joint between the spokes and the metal plate is welded properly, than screwd onto the wooden rim an filled every open space with wood-epoxy filler.

So what did it come out looking like???