steering wheel wrap

Discussion in 'Wrenchin' Secrets' started by johnnylark, Sep 10, 2012.

  1. johnnylark

    johnnylark Well-Known Member

    Hi everyone. I know this is probably a long shot but there was a board member that had wrapped a few sport wheels with a nice cover. You could send him ur wheel and he would cover for you. Just wondering if anyone knew who it was. Any info is appreciated. Thanks in advance. John
     
  2. David G

    David G de-modded....

    Hmm, I don't recall seeing that.
     
  3. mrolds69

    mrolds69 "The Cure"

    You can do it yourself, it's easy! Buy a Wheelskins cover, check their chart carefully, they make many different size covers, pay attention to the size of the actual rim diam. carefully...1" 1 3/8" or whatever. Get the cover, put some gloves on, and pull the thread REALLY tight til the leather puckers. It will look like it came from the factory if it's Wheelskins, they make many of the OEM covers. There WAS somebody here who said they would do it for you, I forget who it was. But...put your "big boy" pants on and try it yourself!
     
  4. johnnylark

    johnnylark Well-Known Member

    Loo. I have no problem doing it myself it just looked really good when he had done it. Id hate for it not to look nice. But thanks.
     
  5. Duane

    Duane Member

    I did one and it turned out nice. I padded it to give it a thicker grip. Just takes a chunk of time to wrap.

    You can do it.
    Duane
     

    Attached Files:

  6. 71gs3504sp

    71gs3504sp Well-Known Member

    Duane

    As you know that our original steering wheels feels oily and yucky!
    Looking at your photos which looks great which manufacture did you use?
    I am going to take my GS out soon, since I drove it last 6 years ago, and don't want to drive with that yucky steering wheel!

    George
     
  7. Duane

    Duane Member

    George,
    This one is a 16" wheel and I padded it with a soft hose I got from Home Depot. The wrap came from Pep Boys, and was one of their deluxe steering wheel wraps.

    They have different widths so you need to figure out what you need.

    I can give you the exact info for everything if you want.
    Duane
     
  8. mrolds69

    mrolds69 "The Cure"

    That's a nice wrap. The Wheelskins look like that, but they only have one seam at the bottom, not 3. If you do it, it's easier to do on the car than off, because you have more leverage to pull the lacing. The tighter you pull it the better it looks. But...the lacing can cut into your hands!
     
  9. johnnylark

    johnnylark Well-Known Member

    Hey Duane that's a nice wrap. That's the look I was looking for. Any info u can send me would be great.
     
  10. GSX-PKV

    GSX-PKV registered user

    I did mine off the car and wore leather weight lifter gloves to prevent cuts and get super tight lacing. I was able to buy my original GSX's wheel and recently took it off the car but after 20 years it still looks great and the stitches stayed super tight.
     

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  11. johnnylark

    johnnylark Well-Known Member

    Duane what kind of soft hose?
     
  12. ddhathaway

    ddhathaway Platinum Level Contributor

    I had the dreaded sticky sport wheel so finally wrapped it with a Wheelskin cover. Everything went well until about two-thirds of the way around I pulled too hard and the lacing broke. I managed to tie it and get it looking pretty good though not perfect around the knot. So even though you're supposed to pull as tightly as possible you can overdo it. Either that or I'm abnormally strong. :grin:
     
  13. Duane

    Duane Member

    "Duane what kind of soft hose? "

    For this one I used the low pressure style hose for a dishwasher drain hose. They make two types a high pressure and a low pressure, and I used the low pressure so the finger grips showed up better.

    I cut it lengh wise, then cut a thin strip from what was left over, and used it as a fill in piece to complete the core covering. Then I wrapped the entire core with padding tightly with electrical tape. The trick is to make sure the tape is wrapped in a perfect spiral so when it's finished the outside diameter is the same all the way around. That way you get no ridges from the tape edge to leave a "groove" under the cover.

    You can do this in 1 of 2 ways, make sure you spiral the tape wide enough so the edges touch, or spiral it tighter and cover it 1/2 at a time. I used the 1/2 method for this so I could wrap it tighter to retain the finger grip impressions of the original wheel. You can't do it exact where each spoke comes through, but you can't get the cover that tight there anyway so the difference is not noticable under the cover. The finished cover is about the same diameter as a real GSX wheel, and has a little cushion to it which was what I was after.

    I will include a pic showing the wrapped core before the cover was completely installed. Hope this description makes sense to everyone, maybe the picture will help.
    Duane
     

    Attached Files:

  14. rogbo

    rogbo Gold Level Contributor

    I used the Wheelskins brand years ago shown in the attachment.
    It was fun to do and I also thickened the wheel with some various tapes.
    The one from PepBoys looks pretty good too. It does take some time and patience
    and you can always start over if you screw up a little.
    Here's a link to a Wheelskin cover that you can start with to get the one you need.
    Does a little measuring to get just the right one. Good luck.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/160516938179?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
     

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  15. real82it

    real82it Silver Level contributor

    +1 - have used these on 2 GSs - work great and give a great feel to the wheel when done.
     
  16. Race Lutz

    Race Lutz Well-Known Member

    I need one for my D/D 1995 Chevy Caprice 9-C-1 ex police car. This is the first time I have found out about Wheelskins. I am going to try locally, then I'll order one on line.

    Thanks for all the good information.
     
  17. Tim N.

    Tim N. Platinum Level Contributor

  18. Racerx88

    Racerx88 Platinum Level Contributor

  19. Joe B

    Joe B Well-Known Member

    Great looking wheel but not much of a website, just one page that doesn't even show the product. Any idea how much they charge or where they are located in Dallas? Do they require a core?
     

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