The steering wheel in my '65 Coronet 500 is cracked all the way thru in multiple places. I'm not aware of anyone who restores these things but Year One does sell a reproduction for $400. Anyone have any feedback on the YO steering wheel. I'm not a big fan of YO since some of the stuff I've purchased from them has been high priced but low quality. Any other vendors out there that would have steering wheels? I can't imagine this is a very big business so probably just one guy in China making these things.

https://www.yearone.com/Product/chrysler-b-body/mw4red#prettyPhoto

I think there are a couple of guys on the board who restore them, check the archives as "steering wheel restoration".

I assume red is the color you need? Too bad. I have an NOS one in gold metallic. I bought it for my 65 hemi car and never used it because it needed fawn and this did not match. Its one of those things to need to advertise and just have never done it. It’s a beautiful wheel. It’s got lots of metalic in it. I doubt the color of this could be reproduced by a restoration shop with paint.

Yes, I'd prefer a red one if possible. I do have a green one that is in very nice shape but green wouldn't look to good with the red interior. That gold metallic might look okay in a red interior. Be a bit more Las Vegas than stock appearing but I might like it. The car is a hot rod anyway!

Why not just paint the green wheel? Probably the cheapest alternative. I believe even the steering wheel restorers paint them in the final process.

I might try that. Not sure how well the plastic paint actually works though. Don't really want my hands to turn red every time I take the car for a drive. Here is what my existing wheel looks like.

i thought when a steering wheel was painted, a catalyzed epoxy or urethane paint was used, so it would stand up to the oils from one's hands.
i have seen painted wheels of all descriptions, and never heard of any complaints of the paints transferring to anyone's hands.

Yes, use a catalyzed automotive finish. An industrial one from PPG or similar. Multiple coats of clear, and you should be good for many years.

Oops. I forgot to send you pics of the nos one I have. I’ll get on that this morning before I leave to the shop. I have some on my old computer. This is a beautiful wheel, but it’s gold.

I might do that. Here is the green wheel that I have. It doesn't have any cracks so it is probably a good candidate for refinishing into a red wheel.

Doug Lepak, The Steering Wheel Guy can restore your red one.


https://www.alignable.com/edmonton-ab/the-steering-wheel-guy

The repro is probably the most economical.

https://www.herbsparts.com/products.asp?cat=840

Kevin

I sent pictures of my red wheel to a few steering wheel shops. One told me the red wheel was too far gone to repair, the others didn't reply. I might get the old green wheel painted red, haven't decided yet. I have two green wheels and neither of them is cracked. One is in pretty good shape, the other one is faded. I suppose I could sell the good one and use the money to paint the faded wheel.

Id for sure paint the green one, however I have also used the steering wheel guy to restore my old 62 Savoy wheel, and he did a great job. That was 10-12 years ago.

depending if you wanted to tackle repairing the red wheel, there has been several articles over the years as well as videos, showing how to do this using [if i remember correctly] a two part product called PC7. you can get that at your local hardware store.
the articles i have seen makes it look easy [don't they all ?] but i really don't think i would tackle doing this myself. as i lack bodywork skills and i don't paint.
or as you said, sell one wheel, then use the proceeds to paint the other.

buy sadly, as old guys, our "shopping days are fast running out" as my one acquaintance is fond of saying......