STEERING WHEEL PREP

Here's the close-to-finished product. I spent an entire weekend prepping two steering wheels, one for the 29, the other for either my 26 T coupe or the tiki truck. It was a lot of work but I think it's well worth it.

It all started with me grooving "vees" into both wheel everywhere that a crack had devoloped, and yes there were plenty. The Dremel was handy for this part. Next step consisted of building up the grooves using epoxy. The first pass I used an epoxy with a twenty-minute set time. Too quick. By the time I'd filled half the grooves, my batch of epoxy was already setting up, which caused me to rush, which resulted in a lot more build up than needed and consequently, a lot of unnecessary sanding. For the second round, I used an epoxy with a sixty minute dry time, which worked much better. I took my time and used a small flat tooth pick to build up what was left of the grooved areas after I'd done the first round of building, them snading down. My second-round method was much more productive and I ended up with a lot less excess epoxy to sand. That said, I did a ton of sanding, using a 100 grit paper, followed by a 220 grit wet/dry. The sanding, while tedious, was actually quite relaxing and resulted in a much nicer wheel as the basis for my roadster's tiller. This is the kind of work you could never pay someone to do or you'd end up with a thousand dollars of labor for a stinking steering wheel. Ah, the price we pay for doing something unique and custom. Enough talk, here are some more pics.

HERE ARE THE PREP SHOTS:

Here's a shot of me playing with another Horn button option, 

but I think the bullet seen above will work out great. 

Addendum: I've embarked on a third round, as there were still a few cracks and imperfections to address and I figure I've gone too far to turn back or be satisfied with a merely decent job.