Steering Wheel Repair

Go to my jeep index page for more jeep stuff

Ten+ years ago when I didn't know any better I hacked a chunk out of my early airborne steering wheel to get it off the column. I had tried assorted pullers, penetrating oils, time, big hammers, etc. and the only thing that I had achieved was to damage the end threads on the column with the puller, so thinking that the three holes in the wheel were just someone's previous butchery and having a spare wheel sitting doing nothing, I split the "butchered" wheel's hub with a hacksaw and cold chisel.

Almost as soon as I'd done it, I wished I hadn't and it's been lying around the workshop annoying me ever since. A few years ago I learned about airborne jeeps and quickly realised that the wheel I'd cut was an original early airborne wheel which made me even more annoyed at myself for wrecking it..... I decided to repair the wheel. I carved some more of the plastic out near the hub to give me space to weld. Welded the hub with the mig and used a bucket of water to cool it before the heat killed the rest of the plastic.

I had tried to find a scrap wheel to get the plastic from, but couldn't get one and didn't like the idea of buggering up another good wheel so I kept the plastic I'd scooped out of the hub for the outside layer and used some panel light knobs chopped up and dissolved in acetone to fill most of the gap.

I started off just painting thin layers of plastic on, but that was taking forever and thick layers dried full of holes, like a Swiss cheese. So I ended up building it up with wee cubes of plastic dipped in acetone and welded together with the disolved plastic. This works very nicely....#:o) The crack got some acetone dripped into it to weld the hairline bit back together and some of the dissolved stuff packed into the wide part with a straightened paperclip.

The final few layers are done with the plastic I saved when digging out space to weld the hub. The colour isn't quite the same because the surface of the wheel has discoloured over time. Perhaps some time, dirt and use will blend it together???

The surface is just sanded smooth with 180 grit and some fine Scotchbright. A quick rub with a soft rag finishes the job and gives it a natural looking shine. I admit to being dead chuffed with how it's turned out #:o) I decided to leave as much of the British Army paint (Bronze Green and Sand) as possible. I could have scraped it all off, polished the whole wheel and made it look like new, but it's got far more character and history the way it is.

Email me and tell me how foolish all this is at chaz@goatpark.f9.co.uk

Go to my jeep index page for more jeep stuff