The optimum steering wheel: 73T hot rod.

[MikeB]

Graham

Have you seen this wheel?

https://races-shop.com/steering-wheels/ ... -flat.html

[sladey]

If you are getting Jonathan to cover it you need to have kept the moulded rubber moulding that goes over the steel. Jonathan fills that and then wraps the leather over that. I don’t think he’ll be able to do it over a solid steel hoop

[911hillclimber]

Mike, no, that is new to me.
I would like to have something that looks original but between the 400 stock and the current 360 Momo, hence the thought to make a new 370 rim and get it re-covered and fit a puck as the butterfly I have would not fit.

The 1969 wheel/butterfly have is leather covered, the stitching is all loose and back in '89 I bought an aftermarket leather cover that is DIY stitched using waxed thread. This was a popular mod to all wheels at the time, cheap and a chunky grip as most wheels were very thin in section.

Sladey: The foam padding is perfect on my stock wheel so very re-usable, but thanks for the heads up. Careful dis-assembly needed...

This is why I need to contact Mr Parr to find out what he needs as the donor wheel.

Should add, this is a little project, so always welcome to me.

[Gary71]

You can’t get the foam off the wheel though to reuse. It’s very very firmly moulded on. I removed just the sections on the spokes to ‘resize’ my wheel and it was a painful and largely unsuccessful dissection leaving a layer still stuck to the steel. There’s no way you’d get a whole rims worth off in good enough condition to reuse on another armature.

Reforming a hard plastic 400 maybe the best bet (other than just buying a 380!) as you can rebuild the areas you cut out with hard filler and still have a good rim to trim over. The only challenge with a hard rim is it may not take kindly to being bent to the smaller diameter. The foam covered one was fairly easy.
Best of luck!

[Gary71]

Each one of these bits took me 30 minutes to get off. And it’s a mess!

[911hillclimber]

Yes, that looks rough!

steel tube + 2 leather layers would give some 'give' to the feel of the rim?
Need to pm Mr Parr. Haven't seen him on here for some time.

[Lightweight_911]

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This is what I have Graham:












As for the rim covering, I'd be tempted to source some solid rubber round profile - or thick-walled rubber hose - & bond that to the thin steel rim ...


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[Gary71]

Agree, A simple 10mm ID fuel hose or similar would do a neat job.

[911hillclimber]

Yep, that is where I am too.
Cut the 400 rim off my '69 wheel, and buy a new tube rim, about 15mm OD. A strip of 'foam'closed cell strip glued on like a wrap on an angle to give a soft substrate.
Then cover somehow in leather or alcantara. (sp).

Sounds like a nice project and not a disaster if aborted.

Any rough idea for Mr Parr doing a cover?
I don't want to waste his time.

[Lightweight_911]

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Why not use the 380mm as a starting point ?

To make the installation even simpler you could drill it to fit your existing Momo hub ...

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[camperco]

We restored a '73 that came in with the steering wheel completely stripped to the rim like that. It was date matched to the car so the customer wanted us to keep it and if possible fatten it up a bit. I met the Carbone guys at the LA Lit show in 2018 where they were they had a demo wheel they had recast.

Sent them the wheel plus the original wheel from our own '68L for recovering in leather. The cost was 690 euros for both. The re-casting of the one rim was only around $100.

Then we went into a 9 month long saga. Here's a summary.

It took months of chasing involving at least 4 different people at Carbone.
One of two of them left during the process and it became obvious that the wheels were on a different premises.
They lost my '68 wheel (forever)
They repaired the '73 as required but in the process virtually removed the date stamps by media blasting. Otherwise a really good job.
They sent me a 944 wheel belonging to someone else. Looked great but we sent it back.
They replaced my '68 wheel with a later one. Fully refurbished with nice stitching and leather covering.
They were very sorry and gave us a full refund of the 690 euros.

We could have used a UK based supplier but at the time (2018) we hadn't found anyone here who could re-cast the wheel rim. We choose them on apparent ability, not on price.
The lack of response to our emails was very frustrating and phone calls went nowhere. However the quality was good and I can't think of many UK suppliers that would have offered a full refund and actually paid it out whilst still doing the work. To a good standard too save for the media blasting.
I would probably use them again but I want to catch up with them in person first for a chat to set expectations.

So, you can get your rim recast by Carbone in Poland.

[911hillclimber]

I would prefer to go 370 o/d., thank you for the details of the wheel dilemma Camperco.

Andy, is that wheel available please? I too had thought of drilling the reworked wheel to fit my eccentric Momo boss that the momo wheel I have is currently on. Makes changing the wheel a breeze (I'm sounding like Darren, a wheel for every occasion!)
I'm thinking of a way to reduce the 400 rim down to 370 and not end up with an Allegro Quartic!

It would be nice to keep my original wheel as it is, keep the 360 momo and have this 'in-between' wheel too and a lock-down project to do.

Touring, semi sport, hill climb!

[Lightweight_911]

Graham - from the previous page in this thread:

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Graham - I have the bare 'skeleton' of a 380mm 914 wheel hanging in the garage.

It has had the splined section removed (I used that when I adapted an old '60's Nardi woodrim wheel to fit my 356), no rim covering, etc.

If it's any use as a starting point, you're welcome to it - there's a chance I might even have some of the bits to go on the front to accept a hockey puck ...

I'll dig it out tomorrow & take some pictures.

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[911hillclimber]

Can I have it and the ring please Andy? I missed your post!
Please pm a price delivered to me here in West Mids.

This is my original (though'69) wheel and tasty custom leather cover which I actually quite like (sorry) and it would be good to preserve it.





Thanks,
Graham.

[911SE]

Graham,
Here's a slightly cheaper alternative to the KK puck, I'm not saying its 100% like the original but I got one years ago and am very happy with https://www.early911sregistry.org/forum ... on-replica