Is this steering wheel safe????

I've restored my 59's wheel, and it was close to the condition of yours. I just cut down my 57BelAir wheel, too. You can barely see the steel inside, where it meets ring

 

Are the guys that are saying "use it" looking at the photos closely? How many holes can one drill through the structural part and it still is good? Two of the holes look to be exactly where the inner structure would head off into the factory epoxy. There's no way for any of us to really answer the OP's question. He's gonna need to dig into it to find out for sure. I wouldn't bother with it.

 

If in any doubt, don't use it. It looks bad to me.

 

Remember the advise you get here is free, so you get what you pay for. I think anyone who suggests you risk your life with that piece of crap, is not worth listening to. Why risk you life and others to save a piece of junk!
I have fixed old wheels before but never ones with cracks in the hub area.

 

You know the answer, dangerous

 

Is it un-fixable?

 

It's a shame, cause the rest of the wheel is pretty nice. The seller did not tell me how busted up the center was. A crack yes, but this is blown out. Or about additional holes drilled. Fellow HAMBer, gonna give the benefit of the doubt and ask for my $$$ back.

Think I'm out of line asking for a refund?

 

Should be a full steel structure under the resin stuff. I have a couple merc wheels with only the resin on the outer ring. The rest is all broken off to the center ..

 

This is the wheel that I used in the Ranch Wagon,,it looked rough but you can actually see the metal inside the crack. HRP





Done,,

 

IF your questioning the saftey of that, I would hate to see your tires.

 

I think the question you have to ask is how comforable are you going to be driving with that wheel and your family sitting beside you ????

 

Big D, tires are new. I'm asking for advice from the helpful HAMBers. Not looking for drama from shit starters. I take my build very serious and do everything I can to make it the best it can be.

Thanks to everyone else for helpful advise.

 

I would repair it and use it if it were a hard to find type or something. Steering wheels have an all steel inner skeleton. The plastic is just a cosmetic outer layer. I would clean it really good and use POR15 epoxy putty to fill and reshape it.

 

I've done several wheels over the years and I've never seen one that did not have a steel core, hub and hoop all welded. you can see the center steel piece that is splined. You can not see the steel spokes welded to it inside in your picture.



When I picked up this wheel up off of the blue tarp the vendor said if you want that wheel? you can have it. There were rather large chunks of the wheel missing around where the spokes entered the hoop. I use PC-7 to fill the cracks and form the replacement pieces. I like to bead blast them prior to filling them so that the rust is eliminated and the epoxy paste has a good clean surface to adhere to down inside the cracks. Stainless spokes are not a problem but the steel hoop will often have rust from being exposed to the weather down in the crack. You could remove all the plastic on these wheels and still drive the car with the steel skeleton underneath. Most wheel recasters remove all the plastic and recast it over the skeleton. Big money usually reserved for high dollar wheels on high dollar cars.



This was only 100 bucks due to all the cracks in it. A 300 dollar wheel if perfect. A weekend of filling sanding and spray bombing and it's as good as new. Very satisfying.

 

Weld or braze a steel slug beneath the center and redrill it to fit your column if ya really wanna use it.

 

heheheh I pity the fool ...............no.

 

i took the wheel off my old shoebox busted up worse then yours and broke off the little remaining plastic, resin or whatever it was, it had 2 pieces of bout 1/4 diameter steel rod running through the spokes welded onto both sides of the center (splined) hub that fits on the column i cut the welds off of it and took the center piece to a friend and he made me a pice that went over(around) the center hub to allow me to use a 3 bolt grant style wheel on it

all that to say my wheel made yours look new all of the cracks are cosmetic your just psyching your self out

take a grinder go down through 2 opposing cracks and you will see the metal supports and you'll realize your worry was over reaction

sorry i dont have pics of my wheel wish i did

 

you've probably seen either in junkyards or pics of car wrecks where the steering whells of cars are bent over double or pretzel shaped where the driver was crushed into them or impaled on them they didnt just desinergrate and fall apart the steel core holds it together

or look at a car thats a burn out all the plastic is gone but the steel steering wheel is still there

 

Cant beleave some of you guys thing a streeing wheel is just plastic with some steel randomly placed in there. The steel is welded togather. If you question it put it on a shaft in the vice and whale the shit out of it and if it falls apart then you will know its not sefe if it stays togather fix the cracks and go for it. Have you ever tryed to pull a streeing wheel with out a puller?

 

At first I was going to say hell no because the picture is misleading, I thought the cracked part was cast iron or something. But it looks like it's just the epoxy, there should be a steel framework through the hoop and spokes to the hub under all the epoxy.

 

I vote no better safe than sorry

 

The steel structure appears to be fine, looks like it's just the resin that is cracked/broken. It should be plenty safe. To test it, set it up in a vise and push/pull on it to make sure it's sound with no hidden structural issues. If you like the wheel that much, epoxy it, sand and paint it. No biggee.

 

I took a good look at the photos, its perfectly usable. There are no cracks in the steel hub, thats the plastic thats cracked. Grind out all the cracks with a dremel, fill and sand with epoxy, you are good to go. It WILL be a LOT of work to fix this wheel, but if its the wheel you want, go for it. Bunch of bubble-pak Barnies on here...

 

Use common sense. I'm a patcher. If the metal is not rusted away, I would epoxy up the cracks, paint it and use it. It would also be a good time to cut out the center and weld in a center from a donor wheel that matches the column you are using.

 

You yourself didnt know WHAT they were made of, based off your original post.

 

Thanks Big Douche for pointing out that I'm reaching out for help with something, and then insulting my build you've never seen. Your screen name makes total sense now.

Please close this post.

 

are you a gamblin man?

 

That would be a "no"

 

Safety should be #1 in any build. Aside all the stabs, the first dozen post suggested to trash it. Some said to use it, but I would not. Would you let your teenage kid drive that car at freeway speed, or anyone in your family? There has to be other steering wheel choices that would make a person not even question the idea to use one in poor condition. Sorry if your getting steamed, but blow your steam elsewhere.

 

You guys all crack me up. You might as well throw out that 32 coupe you found in the barn for cheap because it has rust holes in the body! "Can't fix that!" you say. Anything can be repaired, restored or re-worked and would probably be better than new with todays technology. The real question you should ask yourself is A: Is the steering wheel worth the cost and effort to save? So that being said, yes it can be saved. Would I run it in the present condition? no. I would dig into it and see for myself what condition it is in. If it is a rare piece then I would restore it. If not rare then find one in better condition. Just my $.02