Renewing Steering Wheels

[Bookwus]

Hiya All,

This past summer I rebuilt/renewed the steering wheels for my Type 1 and Type 2. I followed the general procedure and used the materials outlined by John Henry over at his BugShop website. Both turned out great. However...................

Within a week of being installed the Type 1 wheel started cracking around the repairs. Closer inspection showed that the repair material looked as if it were being forced up and out of the repair area. The areas repaired were typical - cracks/separations at the end of the spokes where they join the rim and cracks in the hub. All separated.

On my Type 2 wheel everything still looks great. It started with cracks and pieces missing (looked as if somebody had taken a hammer to it) in the hub area.

So I'm wondering why using the same techniques and same materials produced such different results. Any experience, opinion, speculation out there?

[RSorak 71Westy]

Is this using epoxy putty to fill the cracks?, if so i had the same results....

[Bookwus]

Hiya Rick,

Yep. I used the Restomotive POR-15 Epoxy Putty. Pretty easy stuff with which to work. Drilled (used a Dremel) out the cracks/separations and filled them with the stuff.

[Amskeptic]

[Wild speculation]You may have some serious dimension changing with temperature differentials on a smaller radius steering wheel. Based on your symptoms of material being forced out, me thinks you repaired in a warm environment and brought the result to a cool environment. The steel hoop in the wheel contracted in the cold. [/wild speculation]

[Bookwus]

Hiya Colin,

I'm with you on the dimension changing business. Actually, my thinking was just the opposite of yours. I was thinking that what may have happened was the original plastic warmed up and expanded forcing the hardened putty up and out. Different coefficients of thermal expansion in the two materials. Whatever.

What's really puzzling is that one wheel recracked and the other did not.

[Bookwus]

Hiya All,

Just an update on this post and a conclusion or two for those in the future who may be thinking of doing a steering wheel restoration.

After a couple of months (and some variation in temperatures) the steering wheel on the Bus is looking excellent. I'm really quite pleased both with the way it turned out and how it has held up so far. It makes me happy to sit in the driver's seat when I grab that wheel.

The steering wheel in the Bug? I junked it. I got an excellent deal on a VWG repro wheel at my FLAPS so I went that route. I had heard only good things about these wheels and this one is certainly all that and more.
The wheel I repaired continued to crack and split and I now think I know why.

As Colin mentioned earlier in the thread, it has to do with contraction and expansion. But there is more. You see, on the Type 1 wheel the cracks went all the way through the plastic and down to the steel skeleton. I widened those cracks out and filled them with epoxy. That step worked well. But the repair resulted in cracking again BECAUSE the plastic (not being continuous) was actually moving with contraction and expansion. The epoxy could not maintain contact with two moving surfaces and that resulted in cracking.

On the other hand, my Type 2 wheel, although suffering some pretty extensive damage was NOT broken through all the way to the steel frame. All of the epoxy in this wheel is patched into a continuous plastic cover that does not "work against itself" in heat and cold.

Moral of the story? That steering wheel of your is repairable IF it is not cracked through to the frame. On the other hand if your wheel is cracked through, forget about the epoxy approach. Get yourself a good steering wheel cover instead. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.

[Amskeptic]

if your wheel is cracked through, forget about the epoxy approach. Get yourself a good steering wheel cover instead. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.

That's what I did. In commemoration of Velokid, I got a racing bike black cork composite handlebar wrap and wrapped my Squareback's badly cracked steering wheel. I feel like an athlete hanging a hard right turn.
Colin