Eastwood has several kits to choose from. Which ones are better and why?

I didn't use any of the epoxy kits to restore my 68 Deluxe wheel. I ground a V notch in each crack, then filled with Kitty hair body filler for strength, then bondo, then spot putty for final smoothing. Lots of missing material on the hub which is typical for these wheels and the kitty hair has held for almost 2 years with no issues in the florida heat.

I've done several with PC7 epoxy followed by rage extreme filler. No need for a "kit".

What about the color finish? People say you just paint it but it seems like paint would just rub off after not too long. Mine will have to be red when done.

My paint has held up and not worn off yet. Krylon semi-flast black.

I've not done my red wheel yet either. I have less concern about getting a lasting paint then trying to match the red. Because it is red plastic that was molded and not red painted, I fear I could not duplicate the look.

That's my concern as well. I know the wheel is red through to the inside. I guess I'll end up painting the whole thing so I'm not that worried about matching or blending. I wonder if some sort of special paint for plastics is required.

I will be starting on my first attempt at restoring a steering wheel myself soon. The one I have has quite a bit of splitting on the hub area. I was going to start with some epoxy to "glue" the hub plastic pieces to the metal. Then use one of the fiberglass filler products to bring it up to a sandable level. I have used duraglass before on my jeep and it has held up well. I want to stay away from bondo type fillers as much as possible because they can be soft. As far as the final paint I will probably use krylon. I understand that they now make a line of product especially for plastics.

KBS has a couple of video's on youtube about steering wheel restoration.

I would like to see more on painting the wheel.

I am using PPG BCCC on mine the clear coat oughta protect the black from wearing.... I have all the supplies, just need a few spare hours to blow it on, but I am working on my CB750 frame restoration as well and thinking of blowing them off at the same time...

Hi, I too have embarked on this as my winter project. I think I have the deluxe wheel with the three horns. Is it supposed to be totally round? My wheel in the horizontal plane is 15 3/8 and in the veritical plane 14 5/8. Before I start the filling in the cracks etc I wanted to make sure the shape was correct.

Mine isn't! Its about the same out.

Ironic I just measured mine up yesterday...trying to decide if I want to do a resto on it, or just slap a Classic Grant on it and call it good...I kind would prefer a little less diameter and a little more thicknes...and keep the original in storage.

My 3 spoke/3 horn button wheel measure exactly the same. It seems they are not supposed to be perfectly round.

My deluxe wheel is also the same out of round.

In regard to the center horn button with the firebird logo in the center. How do your repair the acrylic round firebird logo? I do not see that reproduced. It would be nice to fix that center cap on the deluxe wheel that I am workin on now. What has everyone else done?

Not sure how bad yours is but mine had really faded wings so I took the plastic disc out of the rubber horn button and scraped the remaining red off the backside with an exacto knife. Then used red Testers paint to redo them. Maguires polish for the front of it took care of the little scratches and removed the haze.

I did my center button the same way on mine. Great minds think alike!

I did it the same way on the horn button on my old 57 Studebaker Silver Hawk 14 yrs ago! yes, great minds....

Just thought I'd update since this thread came back up.
I bought one if the repair kits from Eastwood. $36. It came with one little sheet of instructions. I kind of wished I had popped for the one with the full color book on how-to. Anyways got started on it. Used a hacksaw blade to open up the cracks and laid some epoxy on. That stuff is not as easy to work with as I had hoped. Turns out it would make the job a whole lot easier if I had taken the time to make up a holder for the wheel that I could rotate while working on it(I may still).If you lay it on one side you can't do the other side until it's dry and you can flip it over. Anways put the epoxy on way to thick and had to take a razor to remove most of what didn't get in the cracks. Still haven't really started the sanding process yet.
More to come...(oh BTW. this is off my wife's tbird)

Maybe some of this might help with your steering wheel resto. I took shots of all the steps and it turned out pretty good. I noticed my wheel was quite out of round as well and you can see what I did to lesson the oval. It must be something to do with the wire inside and the plastic thicknesses of those wheels that cause them to warp as they age.
http://www3.telus.net/68bird/steering_wheel.htm

Nice job! As always...you make it look easy to do!

This should be a sticky or HOF... excellent write up and photographs!

Sanded it all down and put the secong round of epoxy on today to touch up the areas that I didn't get enough in the first time. Went to the paint shop and had a rattle can made of the original Fiesta Red($40, ouch) and stopped at autozone on the way home and picked up some sandable primer to cover some of the smaller cracks. Was looking for an applicator for the epoxy and ended up using a push-on eraser on a pencil. Worked pretty good.

Looking good Bob!

When I was restoring my wheel, I would hold the wheel in a driving position and touch every one of the recesses to make sure they felt right. I still missed a couple even after doing that several times.

Good idea Bill.
Finished the epoxy yesterday and finished sanding it off this morning. Cleaned again with the degreeser solvent and shot some plastic adhesion promoter, that came in the kit, on. Shot the first layer of primer. I'll bring it inside to dry for a couple of hours and give it a finish sand with some 400 then clean again and shoot the first coat of top coat on. Can't wait to see how it comes out with color on it.

Looking good. I am using the POR expoxy also. Mine is still in that first ugly stage of filling the main cracks. Lots of work to go. Deer season is almost over here so I will be working on the car again.

Not to hijack the thread, is there any way to restore the emblem on the horn button?

Got a couple of good coats of clear on it yesterday. One thing I'm having a tough time with is I tried to sand in between coats and I was getting black stuff off the sandpaper onto the wheel and it didn't want to come off. Brand new wet/dry oxide paper. I guess the thing to do would be to use some of the white paper if you were to sand in between coats. Got one little spot where the paint ran that I have to fix today and then it will be done. I could leave it but I'm already there so I may as well fix it now instead of kicking myself later.

Not sure what kind of clear you're using, and maybe too late at this point...but for benefit of others...rather than sanding between clearcoats can't you just re-apply extra coats before full cure, if still within the chemical bonding time? Most clears and paint systems have an allowable window for re-application. Random example "re-apply second coat within 1 hour, or sand and reapply after 24 hours."

Usually you can eliminate the need to sand between coats (with the obvious exception of dealing with runs/dirt/fisheyes) if you just re-coat sometime after it firms up to avoid runs, but before full cure has occured, and the chemical curing process is still taking place and can therefore bite into the second coat.

And many modern paint systems allow full wet application also, so you can immediately spray clear right on top of wet base, etc.

This concept varies widely by paint system and brand of clear, so you'd need to read the application instructions carefully. It often is a good alternative though that saves a lot of sanding time and problems as you describe.

Looks like a good looking wheel! Nice work! Mine is a mess...may do this someday. My plastic is pulled WAY away from the hub...like a solid 1/4" to 1/2" gap between steel hub and plastic. And extremely uneven...these are not just cracks I can widen and fill...Looks to me like I will have to build up one side of the crack at least 1/4" thicker just to meet the level of the other side of the crack! Was yours that far off? If yes, are you guys just filling this gap and building it way up with a huge amount of epoxy material?

To me, mine (black deluxe) looks a WHOLE lot worse than what it seems you guys are starting with. Mine's definitely much worse than that red one that shows the process from start to end in the link above. I should post pics...hard to describe I guess.

Well yeah, the sanding was just to clean up some runs. I got a little close with the can when I was spraying. It's tough to get all the inside areas of the wheel because you only have so much room between the rim and the hub/spokes. I'm using a 2K clear. I'm very impressed with it's ease of use and also the finish. The only bad is it has to be used within 48hrs after you activate it.
Finished it off today. I'm happy with the way it turned out.
Cost around $100 in supplies plus I bought a Dremel tool at HF for $20. Took me about 20 hours inside on rainy days. Not sure how much the cocktails bill would come to. I'll post a pic when I get it installed back in the car.

Now the next one is one of those clear top wheels that all the clear has fell off. I may look into how to re-do the lucite portion. Might require some sort of a mold and a liquid material.

Nice job Bobby! And yes, you can do mine if you like...and I will supply the CND booze and beer! lol

I have to do a black one and a clear one.

Finally finished the steering wheel up. Took my time. It was not very hard at all. Thanks for all the tips........................

http://s931.photobucket.com/user/sammypo...695542811066347

Looks great! Nice work.

Does anyone have a good match for the chrome/silver spokes? I've tried a few silvers laying around in the garage and didn't like them. I'm also not entirely sure what the original color is since my spokes were worn.