DuttonOwners

Dutton Kit Cars and their owners

Playing with steering wheels and shopping.

Shopping first. Went with Sue to look for a bit of furniture to put in the now decorated porch, somewhere to put boots and shoes. Came home with a rake of suede like material which is now going to be used to trim the legerra. It'll go through the sewing machine which will make assembly times faster on the seats. Easier to work than the original plan of using leather and about £100 cheaper. There will probably be enough left over to make a part tonneau over the back shelf.

Knowing I would need to re-trim a steering wheel I went out to the garage and got the knackered old spare down from the nail its been hanging on for six years or more. The steel spokes are rusty, the leather is mouldy and it feels horrible.

Looked a bit like this.

Out with the air tools,

Step 1 - remove all traces of paint and surface rust with a paint stripping wheel.

Step 2 - Use a flap wheel with scotchbrite between the flaps to smooth and clean.

Step 3 - Use the little DA to finish the flats.

Step 4 - Go back in the warm and clean the leather with leather wipes, decimated half a packet it was that grotty.

Step 5 - Back to the cold and paint with 1 coat primer filler, wet coat 1 satin black and then 1 wet coat of Mini Astro Black metallic to finish, lights off and back in the warm with the still wet wheel... Warning DON'T do this if your better half doesn't like the smell of solvent. Keep the wheel flat until the curves have gone from the edges at which point most of the solvent will have evaporated then hang in the spare room to dry.

Due to the temperature I couldn't be bothered to mask it up as you can see from the yellow tinge on the leather but that'll come off and it'll clean up with thinners and some more wipes.

There are plastic caps to go over the bit where the spokes join the rim which are black plastic, they will be covered in the same material as the rim but for the moment i'm going to fit the wheel to the car tomorrow and see if it makes a difference to the driveability of the car as it's an inch bigger. I will be leaving the original leather cover on whatever happens, covering it over with material should be ok as long as its a really tight fit. 

To be continued.

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Comment by Adrian Southgate on March 5, 2012 at 0:51

Its the one that was hanging on the back rafter of the garage, you can see the nail mark in the soft part of the rim.

This material in nice stuff and cost me less than £30, will go well with the new carpets, just need to crack the whip and get my seamstress on the case to get if done before Stoneleigh now.

I need to make a spare wheel well and alter the back parcel shelf, well make a new one actually.It'll be reet.

Comment by Dave Taylor on March 4, 2012 at 20:17

Looking good Mr S.

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