Stitching a leather cover on a 69 rallye steering wheel.

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moparmat2000

moparmat2000

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I have a 69 rallye steering wheel I bought off another fabo member. It's not a wood grained wheel. It's in remarkably great shape except the rim hoop plastic is shot. Lots of big and little cracks. It got me thinking why not fix the cracks and just stitch a leather cover over it. I found a place that can do this, but I'm looking at $300 in labor for 6-8 hours work is what they told me. Anybody do this and stitch a cover on? How hard is it to do? How well did it turn out? Is there a DIY kit available where you tell them the hoop outer diameter, and grip diameter and they send you the materials ready to install?
 
There are kits to DIY. That price sounds high to me. For a little more you can get the wheel restored. To save money, you can fill and sand smooth the cracks yourself and lace on a universal leather cover yourself.
 
Our 67 has one on it. I would think finger grooves may be needed? Ours was on it from prev owner. I like the looks of it.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I have a 69 rallye steering wheel I bought off another fabo member. It's not a wood grained wheel. It's in remarkably great shape except the rim hoop plastic is shot. Lots of big and little cracks. It got me thinking why not fix the cracks and just stitch a leather cover over it. I found a place that can do this, but I'm looking at $300 in labor for 6-8 hours work is what they told me. Anybody do this and stitch a cover on? How hard is it to do? How well did it turn out? Is there a DIY kit available where you tell them the hoop outer diameter, and grip diameter and they send you the materials ready to install?
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I have a place that can do it for you. It will probably be $1000 though. He charges $100/hr and he's worth every penny.

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This is a leather roll bar cover. Done inside the car. It cost a bundle.

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Here's a basic stitch anyone can do pretty quick.....


I did my old Sport Fury that way and didn't like it so I pulled it all back out.

There is a cross stitch that looked better IMO. Took me longer to do as I recall.

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I am pretty good at DIY and stitching, would like to give it a go if can find a kit that will work with my rim hoop and thickness. Steve, the rim has the finger grooves on it. I plan on keeping those intact. Hoping the leather will contour to them.
 
A buddy's wife stitched a Wheelskins on his, looked great !
 
I wonder if there was some sort of hard foam or rubber and method to install it to increase rim thickness of the Rallye Wheel.

The narrow-ness of the OE rim is uncomfortable.
 
autoxcuda said:
I wonder if there was some sort of hard foam or rubber and method to install it to increase rim thickness of the Rallye Wheel.

The narrow-ness of the OE rim is uncomfortable.
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I wrapped a pc. of heater hose around mine, but the old auto parts leather covers did`nt quite cover all around. You have to slit hose lengthwise, find the proper cover and it would hide it.
 
Interesting topic. :D . One other option is to install a Tuff Wheel and save original for next owner. I for one wouldn't consider a leather wheel 'upgrade' unless car interior had other (leather) appointments. But, the universal leather-wrap kit could be okay because it is not intended to pass off as factory option. I have one on my Signet.
 
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Not going to install a tuff wheel in place of the 69 rallye steering wheel. TBH I think the rallye wheel looks better. Tuff wheel is 70s stuff along with locking column. It has no business being on a 69 model IMHO. The repair shown in mopar magazine details large cracks where the plastic shrank away from the metal hoop. I can fix these issues on my wheel. But what I also have is a lot of little hairline cracks or crazing all over the plastic besides the large cracks note pix below. Is there a good way to seal those up? I am figuring there is not, and that my best bet is repairing the large cracks with JB weld to make it solid. Then somehow to cover it up with a leather wrap might be the way to go.

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I think a 69 Barracuda wheel especially with their colored rallye rim would be a neat very mild custom touch. It's grained dyed leather and doesn't look that far off from the vinyl seats.

It will just feel like leather instead of vinyl. And more enjoyable to drive.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Interior is going black, I was thinking either brown, or black, but probably black.
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Definitely black to match the interior. That whats the original colored rim would have been.

That one you bought there was originally in a green colored interior car.
 
Heres a pic of a wheelskins stitched on a 66-67 chevy rallye steering wheel. It's a similar diameter rim hoop to what I have to get an idea.

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Actually I think it's a blue rim, that's badly sunburnt. It appears green or teal in the pic but it's definitely blue. May see if they can send me double the length of lacing cord so I can do a baseball stitch on it
 
moparmat2000 said:
Actually I think it's a blue rim, that's badly sunburnt. It appears green or teal in the pic but it's definitely blue. May see if they can send me double the length of lacing cord so I can do a baseball stitch on it
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Yikes ! :eek:

But the spokes look real nice in that pic. Great wheel to do this on.
 
Yep, that's why I bought it. Was in a dry climate. Even the wheel center and horn contactor is preemo. I bought a repop horn cap from Van's auto. Spokes are great with only 1 very small pit on one spoke that I can touch up with a tiny dot of silver paint.
 
Here’s a rallye wheel wrapped in leather, I was thinking of doing mine like it.

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The base rallye wheel had a leather look pebble grain, so adding a leather wrap isnt so non original IMHO.
 
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