Steering Wheel Refurb

Hi Nigel,

I don’t know what the Slough wheel looks like under plastic coating. My 1955 Light 15 came with a pre-war 3 spoke wheel with the same problem of peeling plastic.

I stripped it all off and found that the 3 spokes were cast aluminium.

I de-rusted the rim, polished the aluminium and sprayed the rim brown.

Not original but I think it looks pretty good, and a lot less than £350 🙂

After

Before

Roger

I just used a spray can of Halford’s car paint. Grey primer and Vauxhall Brown I think, which was a near match to the wheel hub insert. I don’t suppose it will last for ever but so far it’s OK, after about 5000 miles. Easy enough to give it another coat if needed.

The spokes did take quite a bit of sanding and I applied a clear laquer. A bit fiddly masking the joint between the spokes and the steel rim.

I don’t have the facilities to spray paint epoxy paints and a lot of work for a couple of minutes spraying.

Roger

I found this quite badly deteriorated Blumels 17″ diameter wheel on Ebay for which I gave £20. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found that it had the same size Woodruff keyed fitting on the column. It was easy to polish the alloy hub and then I used some hockey stick foam handle grip which has adhesive on the back and having cleaned the rim as best I could I wrapped the rim with the foam. I finished this off with a leather glove (comes as a kit) which I stitched on.  It is soft and comfortable to use and looks good – I think.

Stitching looks good from here, as does the whole wheel. Glad you got it sorted. Makes a big difference to driving a traction I think – it’s the bit you’re hanging onto all the time after all. Judging by the 1948 Autocar Road Test pic you’ve got it the right way up too.

Peter

Hi Nigel,

I must confess that I did not look that closely at your steering wheel but now that you ask the question, I must say that I have not encountered that style of wheel before.

As far as I know, the UK steering wheel was a 3 spoke, like mine, until the 1940’s. John Pressnell’s book shows a 3 spoke on a 1940 model and a 2 spoke on a 1946 model, as shown below in a picture of a car advertised some time ago on eBay.

This was, as far as I know, kept to the end of production.

The French 2 spoke  appears to have had smooth spokes.

So I don’t know where your “ribbed” wheel fits in.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me (not difficult) can identify yours.

If it was mine, I would mount it the other way up so that you have smooth on top. I have no justification for this except that, to me, that would look right.

In the end, as long as it works, and you find it comfortable, that’s all that matters.

Roger