The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Sticky Wheel Syndrome, A Common Occurrence?

I finished up a 10k brake checkup last night but with the pouring down rain I thought that I’d wait till morning to take her out for a test drive. The temps are well up in to the 90’s this morning and the humidity feels like we’re in southern Florida today, one of those bad hair days, you know. Well as soon as I climbed into the cab I knew it was gonna be a sticky one, by that I mean that my hands were literally sticking to the Steering Wheel.
The original paint has worn off about 76% of the wheel exposing the black composite. I know this condition is about as common as a McDonalds restaurant so I’m sure a lot of you have or have had the same experience. I got caught in the rain a few weeks and when I grabbed hold of the wheel with wet hands, the black comes off like wet paint.
My guess is that the composite probably contained some clay; this was in common use as filler in years past. As long as the paint held up it kept it from bleeding all over your hands.
And yes painting the wheel is somewhere on the bucket list.
Any one have similar encounters with there steering wheels and the “Black Death”??
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I had a similar problem with a Vauxhall Cresta I owned a few years back......
I don't know what causes it,but I eventually gave up and repainted the wheel to match the car.
It seems to be a humidity thing but it feels awful,plus your hands get pretty black too.
Bad if you're heading out for the evening..... Especially if you've just spent half an hour getting all the crud from under your nails and removed about three layers of skin trying to make your hands look in some way presentable!

I don't think it's so much the steering wheel material itself that's coming off as much as the hand grime that's built up on the wheel coming off. Every vehicle I've ever owned had a "sticky" steering wheel when it got humid. My '03 F150's steering wheel got dirty enough that it was sticky when humid. That stuff seems almost impossible to get clean so I put a cover over the steering wheel and now it's getting sticky so it's time to replace it again.

Denny,

On the trips to-and-from the ATCA truck show in Macungie PA several weeks ago, I experienced no sticky wheel syndrome. It was raining on both trips, 100% relative humidity inside and outside my truck, and a non-working heater/defroster. The vacuum wipers were adequate but the 100% humidity inside the cab (and leaky windshield) necessitated continuous removal of condensation from all of the windows. I think that the steering wheel was no problem (no stickiness, at all) because it had been painted with high-quality primer and epoxy finish-coat.

Tim

Naw Tiny, this taint hand sweat or oil, this thing will bleed then you get it wet, it looks like you were grabbing a freshly painted surface if your hands are wet. I brought it in thru the rain to get the paint matched up a few weeks ago and we had to mop up the counter and my hands. If I thought it was just dirt I'd wash it good with simple green or something like that, this is the hard rubber compound itself washing away.

Tim, I'm not talking about a freshly painted wheel, I mean one of those 60,000 mile wheels with most of the paint worn off and your down to the hard rubber.
I've got the DP-90 and a quart of Omni 2k urethane when I get the time, I'm sure that there won't be a problem after it's painted. My question was whether others expeianced the same thing in humid or rainy weather on the wheels with the paint all wore off.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

Yes, I have experienced the same problem on (clean) old truck steering wheels that had all the paint worn off.

I do not want to sound gross, but I have also had the dirty-palms-when-humid-syndrome from newer non-paint-worn steering wheels that have significant accumulation of hand grease.

Tim

Yup, mine was like that. I painted it, and now its not so sticky. Unless my hands are sticky from tree sap. I used Tremclad, (rustoleum), and its held up for a year so far, no trouble.

Denny, I thought you were going to paint that 2 months ago!

Ya know Nut, I've got that quart of Omni sitting right in front of me on the bench, it's been there for a couple of months now and I keep finding excuses not to pull the wheel off and disable the truck for a few days. With my luck I'll get that last coat of paint on and it will blister or fish eye and I'll spend another week sanding it off and repainting. So, I'm waiting till the show season is over, ya see, I like to take her to the shows just to show the folks what an AD Chevy truck looked like without a 350 crate engine, IFS, custom leather bucket seats, $5,000 paint job, etc. Oh, and what one looks like that's not dragging on the ground also.
I'll get around to it, like I said, it's on the bucket list. Think I might put one of those fuzzy steering wheel covers on her till this hot humid weather blows over.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

good plan.

Well used GMC and Chev pickups of the early 50's have always had sticky steering wheels in high humidity. I drove a 1950 GMC to school from 1958 until 1962. My hands were always black in high humidity. Lots of people bought covers for the steering wheels to fix the problem. Back in those days I didn't know of anyone who found a suitable paint to fix them. But of course, that was 50 years ago.

Well I'm sure the problem will go away once I shoot some epoxy primer on to seal it and a couple of good coats of enamel. It's just this dang bare rubber compound that's bleeding out on me now.
DG

Denny, I get that Black from many old wheels which have lost their original coating. Mostly on the old tractors I have which sit out in the sun more than anything else or at least did before I bought them.
I was laughing when I read what you said cause my niece is down here and was driving one of my Ford 8N's and her hands were black when she got off the thing.
I think once the coating is gone the material the wheel is made of just gives up it's substance to your hands.
Just get yourself some black driving gloves and don't rub your face when your driving. lol
Dan

I had the same problem with the sticky steering wheel AFTER it had been cleaned and rattle can painted. I guess that I did something wrong. In the mean time, I got one the the cheap imitation leather steering wheel covers at O'Reillys. Problem solved until I have time to redo the wheel.

Hugh

Naw, the fuzzy steering wheel just taint gonna get it ‘nut. So ok, ya managed to get me off me duff and I took care of that sticky old wheel thing today. Now I won’t be embarrassed to take it out in the rain for fear of getting’ me mitts all dirty. Saved the cost of "black driving gloves" also.
The DP90LF epoxy primer coats:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/116022012
The Omni AU, MTK finish coats:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/116022024
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

That color looks dead on, is that the PPG 31089 given in the tech tips?

No it's not Neil, it was a color match from my local PPG dealer.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Well it looks pretty darn good. Did they give you a mixing code?

No Neil, there is no formula. It's just a matter of experimenting with the tint till they get it close.
DG

I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. I hope my guys are as good as yours. Now all I have to do is uncover a good sample. Everything was painted over with gold. I hope I can use some solvent to clean off the gold if not I will have to sand. If it doesn't work out as well as yours, I just won't park my truck next to you. Thanks.

Looks good man. Same color as mine.

But yours is Black Nut, you must have been looking at the picture when it was in the black DP90LF epoxy primer. My finish color is some kinda gray/violet/brown whatever kind of color. And I taint done yet, I'm still not happy with the tint, going to try another PPG dealer and see if he can get it right.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

no, no.. mine isn't black, i guess i need to update my pictures. I had it on there to move the truck, then pulled it off to paint it.

Yeah, just going by your photobucket link.
DG