Quote:

I got a few of these for my 70 dodge coronet Im restoring.But I see a difference in the color of the wood. 2 light tan 1 darker type .Which would be the most correct for a 70 dodge coronet. Or does the woodgrain color matter they are all 70 b body woodgrains .The wheel on it now from a 70 plymouth runner.Its a peanut butter tan color wood



After working on hundreds of MOPAR wood grain steering wheels I can tell you there is no one correct shade of Brown for any given year, make or model.

The "Tan" plastic that was used for the rim of the wheels came in dozens of shades. Check the attached photo of several wheels and tell me how many different shades of Brown, Tan and Yellowy Tan you can pick out and this is just a small selection of what's out there.

On top of the plastic rims they applied brown transparent paint. The final value of Brown depends not only on how many coats of paint were applied but also on what shade of Brown, Tan or Yellowy Tan plastic rim the paint was applied over! Did the paint vary in shade from batch to batch? Probably, so there's another variable you can add to the mix.


In my opinion, it came down to making steering wheels as fast as they could and still stay within the color perameters that Chrysler supplied them. Having said that, I've refinished NOS wood grain wheels that were so dark Brown that you couldn't even see the wood grain. This involved carefully striping the Brown paint off down to the photo etched wood grained plastic rim and then re-applying the transparent Brown paint.

I can refinish your wheel to be as light or dark as you want. The final shade is up to you. Most wheels are finished in a "middle of the road" Brown that lets the wood grain show through the paint without being obscured.

Doug Lepak
The Steering Wheel Guy
web site: http://drive.to/stwheels
Specializing in MOPAR wood grain steering wheels

Doug Lepak