Morris Minor Owners Club

Over the past 9 years of Basil's ownership, I have often wondered about what condition his steering wheel was in.

When I brought him, this was how his steering wheel looked, a very neat job: .
But what was it hiding...

So a couple of days ago, I bit the bullet and took a look.

Working from the outside, there was ....
A top layer of overlapping Black Insulating Tape.
Then there was approximately 30 yards of Black Lacing Cord.
Under that was a further generous overlapping layer of Black Insulating Tape.
Finally there was a layer of thin Foam Tape (not overlapped). There were surprisingly few cracks, just 3 radial around the rim and a couple of small long ones on the underside, but no real width to any of them.
Some areas of surface crazing.
I used Milliput putty, a mix of the black and silver grey, to make a dark grey putty for the cracks.
The crazing I dealt with by applying varnish to try and seal it and then I rubbed it all down with some wire wool.
Finally polished up with Brasso. As my wife said, it was far too nice to be hidden
it looks really grey on the photos, but there is a green element to it, depending on the lighting.

Nice job Berni, it looks much nicer than when it was covered up.

That looks great! The wheel is in much better condition than many are
Well worth the time and effort.

Good job, well done.
Although that shouldn't be like it was with only 5 miles on the clock.

Mervin wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2026 10:18 am Good job, well done.
Although that shouldn't be like it was with only 5 miles on the clock.

That was just after I'd changed the speedo for having a busted odometer. When I brought him the previous 6 years of MOTs were all the same reading, it's not a legal requirement to have a working odometer.

First proper drive out in Basil yesterday, took me a little while to get used to the significantly thinner steering wheel, but it also 'felt right' compared to before...

Glad you liked the finished product...