The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint on the steering wheel

I painted my steering wheel with a spray can of acrylic lacquer. I primed it first of course and the finished wheel looks great.
My question is, should I spray a coat of acrylic lacquer clear over the paint?
Will this give it more/longer lasting durability?
What exactly does "clear coat" of any kind actually do?
If I don't clear it, what will the effect be?
Thanks, Brad.

If you clear coat it you''ll have a hard time getting it to look as good when it goes bad where as if you just paint it when IT goes bad you can just repaint, no trying to feather a failing clear coat and sanding through, just scuff and shoot more paint.
Your call.

CASO do you have a preferred choice of type of coating/paint to go there? I haven't thought about the location until cadee asked earlier. One more thing that needs to be done...

Hopefully, my steering wheel will be getting a lot of use here soon. If I remember the steering correctly- the steering wheel gets some serious grip action attempting to turn. As the OP alluded to, it'll need to be durable paint.

Thx
Brad

CASO, that makes a lot of sense. the truck is not a daily driver and sits in the garage most of the time. The effects of the sun will be minimal so I guess the only "wear" will be from my hands.
Thanks very much guys.
Brad.

I think my only suggestion there would be not using Acrylic... Urethane lasts and wears better.
A Urethane BC/CC or SS should last as long as you're going to be using the truck unless your going to be driving logging roads under load...
I imagine even Acrylic is going to last for years with no real deterioration but it is going to go way before Urethane.

Thanks for the info- I'll probably use the SS urethane whenever I get to the steering wheel. I have already become a fan of it; it is super easy to buff out minor scratches, etc.

Brad (not op)

I painted the stock wheel on my 55 2nd with several coats of Rustoleum black. I fitted a black steering wheel wrap off ebay to the wheel, that way no wearing off of the paint.

Mine was 2 coats of Rustoleum Black. 3 years and no garage parking. Still wipes clean and looks good. Shiny enough for me. The stuff I used to fix the cracks, not so good. It shrank. No cracks, but it looks cracked...if you can get the pic in your mind's eye. Good Epoxy next time for sure.

Got this same task on the list. What type filler was used?
Thanks.

This one was painted back in '09 or about 10,000 miles ago with
PPG single stage enamel and doesn't show any signs of wear at
all.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/155872948

dg

Nice wheel work Denny, looks great.
Just one guys opinion but I still can't get used to that purple cast in the steering wheel and column. To me it looks like the painter left some prior paint in the gun. I used the Rustoleum 7272 throughout the whole interior and cleared only the wheel. Its not oem but then neither is the 235.

Rattle can close match for steering wheel, colum, and shifter

...pic...

...pic...

....no camera flash...

I'm going to cover my wheel with a lace cover one of these days

She's a lady Gus, should look good in lace.

For some reason that odd ball color on the mast jacket,
wheel and "three-speed shifter" looks right to me. Had one
'ell of a time coming up with the right tint, and will
never duplicate it again.
That's a good sub Gus, only one thing wrong if one is
shooting for an original factory appearing trophy, that's
the four-speed shifter would have been black like the
pedals from the factory.

I'm beginning to bend from my 98% original theme, even
thinking about....cover your ears now.....finding a junker
and building a hot rod AD.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Black for the shifter

I did not know that

Thanks

Aw shucks Gus, sure you did, you were just doing a little
customizing, right???

Just pokin' fun at ya don'cha know.

Really though, your's looks fine, but in case someone is
shooting for points, it was black from the factory.

In your pictures that Rustoleum you used on the steering
looks just as good against the rest of the interior as the
original tint did. Although it did have a very slight hint
of purple it was more like a stronger shade of gray.

I'd bet the interior designers thinking was, that it had be
a different shade than the rest of the interior or the
insides would be to monotonous or drab looking.

dg

If I may;

With paint options discussed & displayed, what would y'all use to fill cosmetic cracks in the steering wheel? I'm not sure if I have ever filled this (wheel) type of material. Steve mentioned his bad fortune, but didn't say with what.

Brad

When patching any cast material whether it a concrete side
walk, asphalt driveway, porcelain cookie jar or a hard rubber
steering wheel, it's impossible to duplicate the original
continuity of the original material at time of manufacture.

The AD steering wheel was a combination of raw natural rubber,
ground up used rubber, a filler which could have been Portland
cement or clays and god only knows what other materials.
The best one could hope for when patching a crack would be to
find a modern material that would match the original material
in density and flexibility. That would probably be a urethane
of the correct durometer.
I can't say for sure, but I'd bet a dollar to a donut that the
steering wheel repair kits that are on the market are simply
epoxy which, although they will fill the crack, they cure
quite hard and do not come close to matching the original hard
rubber compound.
The epoxy repair kits, are most likely just inexpensive
xx-minute epoxy and will fill the gaps but in many cases,
in use will eventually start to separate from the original
material.

Urethane can be had in any density from soft as the baby's
butt to as hard as granite rock. Kit's are available from
suppliers such as Reynolds Advance Materials. They aren't
cheap though, but in my opinion they would be the best
match to the original hard rubber.
http://www.reynoldsam.com/


Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Great resource there- the trial sizes of the urethane (Simpact 60 A & 85A) seem as reasonably-priced as anything else out there. I have a 'good-enough' gram scale, but have not added up the cost of the other release agents required. It beats the cost of a new repro steering wheel anyway (not really a consideration because I want to keep the original one).

The crack on the bottom of my 55.2 steering wheel is a pretty good one, but repairable.

Thx
Brad

Twenty five bucks will buy you a two lb. mix of Urethane,
that's enough to do a hunert steering wheels. Concider
yourself forewarned, this stuff kicks off REAL FAST.
So you don't have time to work with it: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/161048902
It's a casting resin and you need to have your joint all set
up for the pour. Some only has an open time of a minute or
two. Good thing is it sands real easy.
No need to buy release, petroleum jelly works just fine for
a release it you needed it.
dg

To Dad's 50...in your picture labeled "no flash" what is under the car cover across the street??? I see wheelie bars!!!
Brad.

The Apocalypse is upon us! Zombies walking through the streets! Head for the hills!
Let's just hope he is kidding.
Carl

I have a steering wheel with over 90% of the original paint on it. The paint which Dads50 shows is very close to the same original color by my eyes.
I don't know why Chevrolet used the purple tinted paint, and I don't know why Rustoleum calls the same color Anodized Bronze.
Carl

The light, the pictures on the computer, the way the
individual cameras record it and the way our individual eyes
process color presents a multitude of variations. Take a
thousand people and show them the same color tint and you'll
find a thousand different opinions. That's always been the
problem with color matching, just ask any body man. The best
you can hope for on the AD steering is just to come close to
something that compliments the color we've used on the rest
of the interior.
A judge has the same tools that the rest of us are born
with, so as long as the colors are close and complementary
you'll never get points knocked off if you're striving for
a show truck.

DG

Thanks for the tip on the urethane. The epoxy I used, shrank after the paint was put on. No cracks, but the repairs are easy to see now. I spent a lot of time sanding and shaping then I got all of them high-lighted. Sucks. The paint has held up better than I thought it would. 3 years of dirty hands and it still looks clean and shiny. Good ole rustolem black satin. Not a bad paint for a rattle can product.

Great thread - could folks share what paints they used for the 47-53 steering wheel and mast (the gray-brown-slightly-purple)? Denny and Dads50's both look like good matches to my original

Was Dads50 steering column painted the rustoleoum "anodized bronze 7754"? Or was that used for the dash?