Preserving a Miata steering wheel

The (I think) leather wrapped wheel in my Miata is falling apart. The finish is basically gone, and whenever its humid gets all sticky and nasty. So I swapped in a much nicer wheel. My wifes Miatas wheel is in good shape as well. But, the finish is starting to wear off of hers. What can I do to protect the finish on my wheel, and restore the finish on my wifes wheel? Its almost like a vinyl paint.

Help!

Joey

I don't know the answer to this but since the leather on my wheel gets nasty every time its humid, I will be watching this thread with great interest.

I have an incredibly nasty Momo Monte Carlo that's over 25yrs old. It's kept mosty for souvenir status and sentimental reasons more than anything else.

The idea of a (relatively cheap) after-market, stitch-on leather wrap might be it's only salvation. Or, I'll have to mount it on a wall.

I use leatherique to keep my bmw leather wheel like new. I swear by these products for leather it does such an amazing job on the steering wheel.

I use REJUVINATOR every 3-4 months, i get a heavy amount on there, apply it a couple times, let the leather soak it in overnight then wipe it off.

After REJUVINATOR or every detailing job i use PRESTINE CLEAN to get off all the dirt from my hands touching the steering wheel.

This stuff works magic on leather i highly recommend, i don't know how it does with leather that has been neglected but if you use it from the start it will look like new forever, my bmw wheel is an 2005 and i can't tell the difference between mine and a brand new one. It helped keep the color and suppleness.

My miata has an aftermarket leather wrap that is nice and tight. Its the kind where the stitching is only on the inside of the wheel.

Kind of like this:

Who ever stitched it up, did a really nice job. There's no play or twisting and it doesn't stick to my hands either. I rather enjoy it.

Leather conditioner/cleaner has worked well for me too.

But I have also wrapped multiple steering wheels with the stitch on leather covers with great success. If it is done right, it will look and feel factory installed.

In reply to RossD:

That looks like a Wheelskins cover - I did one on my Miata when I had it only because the wheel was not leather wrapped but the extra thickness and suppleness felt nice to the hand. Top tip - wear a pair of clean cotton or leather work gloves while lacing it up or you'll wind up with a bunch of small cuts all over your fingers from pulling the stitching tight - ask me how I know The baseball stitch looks especially nice but appeared to be a pain in the tail so I went with the standard stitch and was happy, and after 3 years when I sold it the cover was as good as new.

If the leather is truly trashed I recommend the Wheelskins. Personally I'd give the Leatherique treatment recommended above a try first. An alternative is to refinish the wheel - google leather refinishing but essentially you sand the surface coat off and re-dye and seal it, similar to painting it. If done well it's like new.

My Miata has the same leather wrap setup. Quite nice.

I dealt with this last week, was so humid out that my momo Montecarlo was making my hands dirtier than working on the car!

I took it off, and scrubbed with windex (all i had) and a cloth all the gunk/grime/dirt/sweat/oil off, it was amazing how much was there that I hadn't noticed..

Then I found/ created a tear in the outer layer,so i had to wrap it in electrical tape.. but the rest of it that's a bit worn apart i just covered in motor oil on a cloth. turned out way better than it was..

next up is my heater knobs!

I'm going to be doing a wheelskin soon providing I can figure out that it is indeed legal in STR. I had one briefly on my Maxima before it was wrecked, I loved it.

I keep meaning to try wrapping a steering wheel in cloth handlebar tape from a bike and shellacking it. I had shellacked bars on couple road bikes and it looks and feels great and wears like iron. Plus, a tan steering wheel would look fancy fancy in my black/tan Miata.

In reply to ppddppdd:

That would be a neat treatment for replicating a vintage '20s or '30s race car steering wheel with four spokes.

In reply to RossD:

I'm still not quite sure how it'd look with a big clunky airbag wheel, but it'd certainly be different.

RossD wrote: My miata has an aftermarket leather wrap that is nice and tight. Its the kind where the stitching is only on the inside of the wheel. Kind of like this: Who ever stitched it up, did a really nice job. There's no play or twisting and it doesn't stick to my hands either. I rather enjoy it.

Any idea if you took the original leather off the wheel, this would still fit?

Quick and careful work with an exacto knife would remove the original, dirty, and torn cover....

I had replaced the original shift knob in my Miata with a MOMO ten years ago. I swapped back to the original last week and it was really sticky after storage in my attic for a decade. I put some baby powder on a paper towel and hit it with that. Good as new.