Recovering a leather steering wheel. Hard to do?

As I'm poking around for a convertible (or perhaps a G37 coupe, cause I love 'em), many of the cars I'm looking at are in the '08-'11 range. In some of these cars, I've seen where the leather wrapped steering wheel has seen better days. Either it's showing significant wear, or in a few cases has outright tears in the cover. I know there are recovering kits out there, but have never tried to do it. My mechanical skills are rather limited, but my wife is pretty good with a needle and thread, so I'm confident she could do the sewing part quite well.

Has anyone done one themselves? How hard is it? I haven't priced having it done professionally, but I'd have to guess it's $250+ easily. So if I bought a car that needed it and I could save the money, I'd be up for trying.

I've recovered quite a few '70's era steering wheels using the parts store leather wrap kits in the past, and been quite satisfied with the results. I take the wheel off the car and do it while I'm watching something boring on TV. I also prefer the double needle method.

+1 on the parts store leather wraps. If done carefully, they look good and hold up well.

Wheekskins

fasted58 wrote: Wheekskins

Wheelskins

I did this to my GMC.

About ten bucks from Amazon.com

I had what looks like a wheelskin on my old Miata. When I went to test drive the car originally, I immediately thought of ripping that thing off, but it turned out to be great. It didn't wiggle or move at all. Someone did a fine job and got it nice and tight. It is now an acceptable practice in my book as originally I thought it was the same as one of those fuzzy pink camo covers sold in the 'stick on chrome' isle at auto-pep-zone.

RossD wrote: I had what looks like a wheelskin on my old Miata. When I went to test drive the car originally, I immediately thought of ripping that thing off, but it turned out to be great. It didn't wiggle or move at all. Someone did a fine job and got it nice and tight. It is now an acceptable practice in my book as originally I thought it was the same as one of those fuzzy pink camo covers sold in the 'stick on chrome' isle at auto-pep-zone.

Yeah, the fuzzy pink cover is the mental image I get when I think of an aftermarket cover. Certainly going to try to get a car that doesn't have a worn wheel, but if it does then it's a negotiating point and something I can DIY for cheap.

I've also seen few DIYs on instructables.com, to make a pattern that recovers the spokes, and uses a full piece of leather, rather just a skin around the rim.

Here you go. A Saturday of watching college football, like HappyAndy suggested, will get you a wheel that looks brand new.

EDIT: fixed link

In reply to RealMiniParker:

That link just circles back to this post, but based on your description above this is exactly my plan for the Vette.

In reply to petegossett:

Try the link now.

I bought a stretch-on leather cover for my 94 Sentra, because 90's Nissan plastic. It fits, it stays, its thicker and grippier...well, its not really grippier than the deteriorating plastic goo that stuck to everything, but its a nicer grippy.

I wasn't expecting to like it, but its actually pretty nice.

trucke wrote:

fasted58 wrote: Wheekskins

Wheelskins

Yep. I've installed three of them so far. They don't QUITE look like it left the factory that way, but they're close.

Had several Wheelskins myself. Like the two-tone, good feel on the wheel, easy install. Lace up and look best on thinner wheel spokes as compared to later model fat spokes. Wear thin leather or grippy mechanic gloves while lacing to save your fingers and lace tighter.

Amazon or Ebay sellers will have cheaper prices.

RealMiniParker wrote: I did this to my GMC. About ten bucks from Amazon.com

It's like this forum has ESP sometimes. I was literally thinking about making a post about this exact subject, because the steering wheel leather is torn on my steering wheel of my GMC.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

My GMC didn't have a leather wheel to begin with, though. That's one of those stitch-on covers. They are damn nice.

what I want to see is a heated steering wheel cover. Sounds like a stupid option, but I had a 5-series loaner car a couple of winters ago that had that option and it was awesome! Made me not care that I was given a rear wheel drive loaner with bald tires for a snow & ice filled week.

if you are going to cover the wheel, and live where it gets cold, I would at least check to see what's out there in the aftermarket.

In reply to Rusnak_322:

They do exist. But, the instructions tell you to unplug it before driving. My ex just had to have one.

A retrofitted heating element like the new fancy cars have would be cool I found this website: http://www.gentherm.com/en/page/steering-wheel-heating

which made me think of the heater element in rear windshields for defrost, seems like there must be somewhere/way to buy the element/power sources by themselves. I know for old BMW wheels guys add an extra layer of foam before re-wrapping to make a thicker wheel so something like that but with the heater in it would be perfect!

as for getting power to the heated element I'm thinking it's easy if you have a car that had a steering wheel radio control option that you can live without. I'd happily give up the "seek" buttons on my steering wheel for a heat on/off option.

edit: found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/usb-heated-clothing/?ALLSTEPS which lead me down a deep wormhole of ways to heat a steering wheel.

I did the wheelskins on my F150. Personally I didn't like it. I really took the time to do it right. I even watched the video on their website about doing it right, and I thought to myself as I watched it.... my steering wheel looks better then theirs and its STILL ugly. Personal taste I guess. It was better than the wasted wheel under it, but it still just looked like a steering wheel cover.

My main concern was that the spokes of the wheel are an issue. It wouldn't be a problem on a 65 Oldsmobile, but modern steering wheels have bigger spokes. The wheelskins has no way of being attached at those points so it just hangs out.

Does anyone have a good source for pieces of leather?

I want to remove the existing tattered OE leather, trace it onto a new piece & recover. I checked Hobby Lobby last night, but their largest piece probably wasn't big enough, and definitely wasn't big enough to do it without 2-seams, which I'd really like to avoid.

petegossett wrote: Does anyone have a good source for pieces of leather?

Check your local fabric stores. One that is not a chain.

Our local Foam and Fabric store carries leather hides. I used one to have my Sparco Seat covered. The whole hide was $127.

petegossett wrote: Does anyone have a good source for pieces of leather? I want to remove the existing tattered OE leather, trace it onto a new piece & recover. I checked Hobby Lobby last night, but their largest piece probably wasn't big enough, and definitely wasn't big enough to do it without 2-seams, which I'd really like to avoid.

Tandy leather is an internet friendly retail space. You can get most any thickness/grade/color/animal skin you might want. I have a full side that I use for small projects like this. Stay in the 2-3mm thick range for stretchiness and flexibility of a steering wheel. I am sure there are more options out there, but this is one stop source for what you want.

The local upholstery guy that did my seat will not touch a steering wheel. He says the level of difficulty negates any profit for him.