1950 Land Cruiser Steering Wheel Crack Repair

[TWChamp]

Has anyone repaired a steering wheel crack without having to send it out for a complete expensive steering wheel remolding job?

Mine has this one large crack and a smaller 1/16" crack near the hub on the bottom spoke.

[jclary]

I have done steering wheel repair and been quite successful. Like anything, there is a learning curve. The first one I did was for my Land Cruiser and the repair was functional, but only looked decent once I made a custom leather cover to hide my work.

On the second repair, it was for my '48 Champion Business Coupe. That steering wheel is a much simpler design, with no translucent plastic to deal with. However, it is white, and thus a great challenge to repair for durability of the finish. On both steering wheels, JB Weld was used to fill in the cracks. On the '48 wheel, I used dense unwoven fiberglass matting that I could shape & mold as I applied & wetted out with resin. Much sanding was required to return the wheel to original shape. (Not perfect) Instead of painting the wheel, I went to a Marine (boat) supply store and bought a bottle of resin dye to add to the final two gel coats. Therefore, the finish is deep and not a paint that could rub or flake off. It has held up well (won trophies) but since it is about two decades old, has redeveloped the typical stress cracks seen at the spoke/rim joints typical of vintage steering wheels.

Finally...my last "REPAIR" for my Land Cruiser involved grabbing a spare steering wheel, driving up to the York Swap Meet, and trading it in on one of the excellent, superior, SCHROCK BROTHERS (expensive) Land Cruiser wheels! Best repair I've ever done!

[Jerry Forrester]

Has anyone repaired a steering wheel crack without having to send it out for a complete expensive steering wheel remolding job?

Mine has this one large crack and a smaller 1/16" crack near the hub on the bottom spoke.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]73174[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]73175[/ATTACH]

Yes, use PC7. It's not rocket surgery.

[Jeff_H]

I used the PC7 epoxy repair kit that Eastwood sold/sells on the wheel in my '53. One advantage there for me is that material is generally black and about the same color as the hard rubber the wheel was made of. That wheel gets painted. Some '53's had the hard rubber (can be repaired) and others had a solid color plastic that all examples I have ever seen of crack up into tiny bits like tempered car window glass (not repairable).

For your wheel, there maybe some epoxy filler material that can match the tan plastic, otherwise you will need to paint it.

https://www.eastwood.com/master-steering-wheel-repair-kit-w-instruc.html

I have heard of folks using Por-15 putty too for this.

My personal experience was it was a LOT of work at least in my case. My '53 has the type of wheel where the horn ring is recessed into the spokes and the lips of said spokes had chunks broken out in a few places that I had to figure out how to reinforce since I didn't trust just epoxy buildup alone. I didn't have a decent digital camera at the time and the few pix I took with the cheapo one I was using then are not too helpful for showing the process I went through.

Basically, you end up mitering out the cracked areas with a die grinder or dremel tool and filling it in with whatever filler you are going to use. After that its filling, grinding, and sanding it level. Then primer and paint. Lots of hand work but it may not be bad for you if only those 2 large cracks. That chrome S will have to come off I would expect to allow working around it w/o damage.

[Studedude]

It's not rocket surgery.

Huh?
.................................

[jclary]

It's not rocket surgery.

Huh?
.................................

Well...it could be Gyro surgery...I understand that certain rockets use gyros for steering.

[thunderations]

Not brain science either...................

Huh?
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[TWChamp]

Looks like plastic surgery to me.

[sweetolbob]

TW

This 39 banjo wheel was in much worse shape than yours. I used POR15 epoxy putty to repair it and then painted it body color. It held up for more than the 10 years I had it on the road before I sold it.

Just be sure to take a dremel tool and under cut the break edges.




Bob

[TWChamp]

The problem is this wheel is colored plastic with a slight translucent look to it, so paint would be very obvious as not being original. I wonder if I could find some parts of a like steering wheel in a junk yard and melt it into the crack, or grind it to a powder and mix it with some clear epoxy.

[RadioRoy]

There were plastic repair kits we used in the radio/TV shop back in the 70's. It was plastic powder and some smelly clear liquid. You would mix some up to repair broken knobs and such.

The plastic on the 50 Commander regal steering wheel is urea plastic, made from horse urine, I think. That's why it has a faint smell of vomit.

Sitting in the California sun, my steering wheel was much worse than yours, so I put a good quality, tightly fitting, tan leather steering wheel cover on the rim (not the plastic kind where the lacing goes all the way around - I don't like those) laced it up and called it a day. Looks pretty good and was pretty cheap.

They have also reproduced the correct shift knob in the correct color plastic. You should treat your beautiful car to one of those.

[TWChamp]

Yes, I picked up the correct shift knob from S I during the swap meet, but I seem to be missing a box of parts from the swap meet.