1971 Dart Swinger - Here we go...

Another quick update...

I decided to do some work on the steering wheel. The beast came with the neat rim-blow steering wheel. It was in pretty bad shape with a couple of cracks about 1/8" wide on the rim. I did a bit of research and found that I could fix these using epoxy putty.

I ground down the cracks a bit and sanded the whole wheel. It used to have a shiny strip around the outer edge under some clearcoat. I used a pick and small screwdriver to remove all that.

I filled the cracks with the epoxy puddy. That stuff is amazing. It dries quickly and is very sandable. I made a small block sander to help control the shaping at the repair area.

Since the steering wheel is made of old plastic and requires high wear tolerance, I used RC paint for it. I went to the local RC shop and the guys sold me some paint that sticks well to plastic and is super flexible (and also scratch resistant).

I painted the back of the steering wheel black, and the front 'wood' color brown. At the RC shop, I purchased some chrome applique (again, that was clear coat-able) for the shiny piece around the outer rim.

I think the whole thing came out pretty nice. I still need to purchase the rim blow switch at wire it all in, but not until I re wire the car and put the dash all back together...

Adrian

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