Is it possible to paint a woodgrain steering wheel?

[ant2173]

Hello!

The steering wheel (plastic + wood grain) on my 1982 fleetwood went cracked. I purchased other one from eBay, but realized that the color tone is a little bit different (both are blue, but there was a saturated and light blue in the palette).

Since good steering wheels are extremely rare, I`m thinking if it is possible to re-paint the purchased wheel. However, the woodgrain seems to be under thick coat of varnish and can`t be removed.

Did anyone have experience with these wheels? How the woodgrain can be removed? Or is it possible to paint it with woodgrain installed?

Thanks!

[Classic]

Contact Joe Goss, proprietor of Woodgrain by Estes in Lafayette, IN.  765-427-7078  He can tell you what is possible.   gossjh@comcast.net

Gene Menne

[Cadillac Fleetwood]

The finish is not varnish.  The wood-grain is sealed in a clear plastic.  PM sent.

-Charles

[MaR]

The wheel itself is molded plastic and is solid color all the way though. To paint it and have it last, you will have to paint it like you would paint a car and give it several clear coats for durability.

[Scott Anderson CLC#26068]

Contact Joe Goss, proprietor of Woodgrain by Estes in Lafayette, IN.  765-427-7078  He can tell you what is possible.   gossjh@comcast.net

Gene Menne

Although I do have a Cadillac that has original woodgraining, I am working on a non-automotive project that needed woodgraining done and can certainly recommend Joe.

As context, the project is a 1948 Wurlitzer jukebox, the door of which was originally woodgrained. As it is simply a piece of stamped aluminum, it seemed pretty straightforward to me that an automotive woodgraining service would be able to refinish it. It is undamaged (not warped, no non original holes to fill, etc) too. And there are two services that I easily found on the web that work locally to the Western Washington state area so I wouldn't have to crate and ship.  (I'd looked into Grain-It's process to do it oneself and ended up that as a practical time and bandwidth matter I just wanted to get it done). Both of them agreed to the job top the point of our scheduling deliveries to them and then after I'd disassembled the door abruptly decided not to do the work; one sent me a "I'm sorry I've decided I'm just to busy" email, one had his wife call to tell me he'd changed his mind without a specific reason. I pursued other avenues (hydrographing, art restoration service) but neither were in the end suitable to the purpose.

Joe on the other hand really showed up for me. He sent me photo samples of many variations of my particular wood (carpathian elm burl), and kept in excellent contact through the whole project. He had an end of month out of state committment and really worked to make my project completion happen before leaving for it. There were some shipping snafus both to him and then back to myself when completed - none of which were at all due to him - and he did quite some 'legwork' to make the deliveries happen when he could have just taken the "not my problem" stance. And - I'm happy with the outcome color and pattern too.

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

Joe also did my 1941 60S dash to include the 1/2" setback of the decal "underneath" or on the backside of the dash. He is a good friend of some nearly fifty years standing and wants to do a good job. Jeff Hansen was very happy to take it off the roof of the 60S where I'd stored it when he picked the car up to go to it's new home in Delaware.