Art & Inspiration Steering wheels

There is nothing new about the subject of steering wheels and I realize this question is not specific to just hot rods but also encompasses customs as well.

The wheel in our wagon was originally black but with the direction I took with the interior I knew the black looked out of place,so I opted to use the exterior Chrysler Vanilla,which blends well with the white & green interior.



My question is, do you prefer painting you steering wheel a contrasting color or do you try to match the interior/exterior?

Or do you prefer lacing the wheel ? HRP

 

Depends. I always prefer a factory wheel and usually paint them to match the interior or at least the dash and steering column color on 50's, 60's cars. Early Fords I generally do as Henry did and paint them black. I wood grained the rim on a couple lately. Can't remember last time I laced or wrapped a wheel.

 

Like you I don't remember the list time I laced a wheel but threw that in the mix since my recent acquisition has a laced 40 Ford wheel. HRP

 

Good question. For me it depends on the type of build. Hot Rods black on black interior. Customs some contrast can be beneficial.

 

I like them all and each car needs the one that fits the theme and or color of the build. I see that custom three spoke and metal flake wheels have not been mentioned yet and on a 60s hot rod I lean there ,also on some showrods or customs.

 

It was back in 1975, thought the Bugatti GP car steering wheel looked fine on the Riley 4Port. Who has this car today? Bob

 

Danny it is a very open question. Myself it has to do with the car itself. By that I mean I would look at the car and see what is says to me. My Roadster runs a Bell 3 spoke. Thats what it had 65 years ago so thats what it has now. My Fairlane has the stock wheel painted to match the interior. Falcon has a stock wheel in black.

 

Lacing is for shoes and boots.
You can't go wrong with a beige wheel.

 

I made this one from scratch for my 28 Model A.

 

You guys pointed out a few I never even thought of. HRP

 

Scratch, as a building material, is getting harder to find these days. It seems to have been replaced by a new spec called "0800". Here's one I knocked up from scratch one Sunday afternoon so I could mock up my steering. It was only a dummy until I could save my pennies for a 17" Bell from Schroeder, but it was so easy to do I think I'll make a more robust one and use that instead, laced of course.

 

My 35 has a Moon banjo and my 46 Olds has the original wheel that I had pearled to blend in with planned OEM 2 tone paint scheme. Can't wait to bolt it all together. Everything like HRP's wagon will look original; trim and wood grained dash and garnish molds etc. I've seen the wrong steering wheel or wheels kill the look of the car.

 

I really like that pearl finish on the Olds wheel. How do you do that kind of finish?

 

You pull out alota green and pic your color!

 

With my Hudson I used a 54 Hudson wheel and colour matched to interior. Wheel was reduced in diameter as well.
Work done by Pearlcraft here in Australia.
https://pearlcraft.com.au/

 

I had it done years ago by a fellow and noted that he used a 3M sheet product. He some some leftover (2 tone) that was exactly what I needed to match my planned paint scheme. Years earlier he did the wheel on my 66 Fairlane as well.


I never saw how it was applied or finished however he became ill and stopped work altogether. It appears that Pearlcraft down here do them, I'm not aware of anyone else. Definitely a dying craft. Here's an old Hot Rod write up.

 

I have always been fascinated by the 59/60ish olds steering wheels, They would be great if your column was too short.....Ive seen a few cool ones standing up in older built hot rod T buckets etc.

 

My 32 came with a 56 Olds Wheel (white) that my dad had in it. The Coupe had a 324 in it at the time. I think it was "tradition" to use steering wheels and hubcaps of the donee at the time. Just an observation, cheers

 

Well, which is it shoe or boot. LOL
This is full on custom, needed something to do a couple winters back. Took a few days to learn the hitching and turks heads. Truck will be green.

 

In about 1963 I was going through the junk behind a body shop and found a slightly bent 59 Olds wheel. I put it on my bike with the banana seat and hooked up the 2 horn buttons to work the bike horn. I had the coolest bicycle in south Minneapolis.

 

The 40 Ford steering wheel in my mordor all laced up. HRP

 

Planning to use a stock color, gray mid-forties Ford steering wheel for a '29 Hot Rod that's mattes black with obviously some red interior. Never actually thought about painting it but se that's a cool idea too. For now, the gray gives a little contrast without clashing with the other colors.

 

Nice work. HRP

 

Dave's confused pickup wheel. HRP

 

Ever notice how the old colored sterring wheels were just a bit transluscent? I like to trick the eyes of the casual observer. Get a good base color that's a little bit lighter than stock. Apply a conservative mid layer of pearl, I like gold for ivory-ish colors, even dry white works. Conservative is the key, not too much. Final coat is the tricky part, you want to lay a "candy" over it that mutes the pearl just enough. I try for a rich brown transparent top coat and you need to apply it sparingly. Don't be in a hurry because you'll need to understand that new clears with the tint tend to dry darker than they look wet. 2 coats reduced a bit seems to be the win but sometimes it takes 3. It might seem like you want "more" in each step but no, you don't. The trick is to tease the eyes, to make them think it's an OEM transluscent wheel. Colors? Same/Same. Blue? Good base, light coat of blue pearl, blue candy. Red, green, orange (!), any color. If you can't see the "flakes" of the pearl, that metallic look without looking real close you nailed it. A final clear coat will give it a long life so your skin doesn't wear the candy coat off, and it also tnds to "pop" the trick part of this gig. This isn't a "some's good so more's better" thing if that OEM look is the goal. I did a tech on it a long time ago:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-translucent-steering-wheel-how-to.215724/

Have fun...

 

Nice work. HRP

 

You made the right choice. That looks great. So do a lot of the wheels posted here-nice work everyone.

 

Here is one of the rarest 60s hot rod steering wheels there is. These vinyl rimmed chrome wheels were ubiquitous made by several manufactures. Typical version was colored rim with 3 flat chromed spokes that had 3-5 round holes on each spoke.

The one it question was a version made by Cragar that combined 3 of the round holes into one large oval hole with one small round hole remaining. It is of interest because Ed Roth used this wheel in the Mysterion (metal flake silver rim) and Orbitron (solid white rim) show cars.




Since I was building a replica of the Mysterion, I obviously needed this wheel. Not only could I not find one with a metal flake silver rim, after looking at swap meets and on ebaY for at least 5 years, I never found any version of the wheel.

I was left having to improvise. Picture below shows how I modified one of the modern Mooneyes 4-hole wheels to create the Cragar version. I used my slitting saw to cut out the web between 3 of the holes. Cutting carefully, I didn't mar the chrome so a touch up with clear urethane on the cut edges made it look original.

 

I've never seen the Cragar wheel. Superior, Grant, Cal Custom, never a Cragar. So it begs the question, could that have been a Roth mod? It wouldn't surprise me in the least. He had an eye for subtle things like that and I have to say it really 'works' on such a build.

A brief edit, answered my own question, and learned something new. Guess I'll live a day longer, thanks...