The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk steering wheel gunk

I have a '46 Chevy that I use on the farm. When the weather is humid, the steering wheel feels like it's coated with a thin layer of mud and my hands get covered with black gunk (for lack of a better term) that needs GoJo to wash off. I'm thinking maybe to paint ti with clear lacquer, but I don't know if that will solve the problem or make matters worse. Any suggestions? Thanks

On one of my old tractors I sprayed the wheel with black paint and it took care of the problem.

My '38 was the same way. My modern vehicles usually eventually get a layer of sticky yuck on them as well after a period of time. I suspect it's an accumulation of oils & dirt from hands building up. On my '38 I removed the wheel, filled a large pan with warm soapy water & used a bristle brush to clean it then painted it. So far so good. There are products on the market for cleaning hand gunk off of modern steering wheels.

I don't think it is an accumulation of oil and dirt, but rather the steering wheel material is degrading and comes off on moist hands. I would remove it, wash it with soapy water, rinse it off, allow to dry thoroughly, prime it with epoxy primer, and paint it with two coats of paint.
Carl

The black gunk was the same as my '52. Since the steering wheel was all black at the time I figured the factory brown paint had worn off and the underlying plastic-like substance would decompose when wet. Plastic hadn't been invented yet had it? What did they call that stuff?

You're probably thinking of bakelite but I don't know if that is what was used on steering wheels. The reason I say it may be hand grime is my modern steering wheels eventually get the same way on a humid day.

I had that on a steering wheel one time, and I used Goop hand cleaner. I just rubbed it on the whole thing (not sparingly), let it set about 2 minutes, used a wet soft bristle brush on it a little, then a wet rag to remove it, and finished it up with a clean towel. It actually took about 3 times since it was pretty heavy, but it all came off. The I put a leather 'lace on' steering wheel cover on it so I wouldn't have to do that again.

I had a 1950 F 1 where the original finish on the SW was gone and it felt sticky and make my hands dirty. I just cleaned it a few times and eventually the stickiness and dirty hands were gone.

I had this same problem with the steering wheel on my 37 truck. I washed it off with lots of soap and water, soaked it and washed it even more until I was down to the real wheel material. A nice paint job after that and it has been beautiful ever since. You are looking at a steering wheel that is 70 years old - allot of hands, usually dirty hands, with a truck, have been on that wheel!