2012-03-02 56X Buick Steering wheel

2012-03-02 56X Buick steering wheel

BILL MITCHELL'S 1956X BUICK CENTURY - Steering Wheel Restoration

Restoring an antique car steering wheel today is pretty much a straight forward procedure with many articles of how to do it. Since the 56X wheel is different animal it has become a major challenge. The photograph of the original steering wheel was taken at the end of the work session on February 28, 2012.

As the photograph shows the steering wheel is coated with some sort of rubber and or a soft plastic because it is soft to the touch. In attempting to discover the thickness of this coating we have determined it varies from 1/4" to 3/32". Further investigation revealed that the horn ring on this custom steering wheel is a steel fabrication rather than the production steering wheel which is die cast material that has been chrome plated. We did not want to remove any material around the hand grip part of the steering wheel in order preserve it.

When the car was first purchased, I made many phone call to steering wheel restoration vendors and none of them had any knowledge of this type of steering wheel. We showed the steering wheel to all of our volunteers. After lots of ideas Chuck suggested that we call one of the local rubber coaters in the Grand Rapids area. Chuck actually made the calls and one retired owner gave Chuck another lead. On leap day, February 29, we visited one vendor.

The quality manager, Gary, looked at the original steering wheel and immediately went looking for their long time employee, Sam. Sam we found has been in the rubber and plastic coating business as the actual person that does the coating for 45 years. He is quite knowledgeable about various coating processes. Finally, after discussing many options we decided to take one step at a time and let these folks experiment with a scrap horn ring and a scrap steering wheel.

Sam stated that coating steel is not a problem but coating plastic is a problem as the plastic will not hold up with the high baking temperatures required to cure the coating. I assumed I had a scrap 1953 steering wheel as well as a 1956 horn ring. Yes I found the die cast horn ring but then I remembered I had sold the plastic coated steering wheel at the 2011 AACA meet in Hershey. I called volunteer Rick Sorgen since he is in the process of restoring a 1956 Buick Century and he had two steering wheels as well as horn rings. He has donated these to the restoration of the 56X.

The next step is moving to experimentation. Stay tuned!

Don