As of late, since the XJ's back in top shape mechanically, I find myself motivated to address some cosmetic issues. My first focus is the interior. My steering wheel, like many, is suffering from all its years in the sun. So I picked up a second unit off E-bay for $50 with the intention of refinishing it. So I stripped down the lower wood section but found out the hard way the wood is not very thick. During sanding I uncovered what looks to be a fiberglass base (see the light spots at about the five O clock position of steering wheel pic). I decided I'd continue and applied some walnut stain. So at this point I must decide how a can fix the wood or through in the towel and just have the wheel wrapped in leather. I found a place that can do that for $350 if I use a combination of smooth leather and perforated leather for that "sport" look. The part that's leather now would get the perforated leather and whats now wood the smooth leather. Or I can have all smooth leather for $299.

 

Jeeesh Don, a little stain and a few coats of lacquer and a blind man in the dark would never notice!

 

Don,

I'm with Jim. All is not lost!

If you'll look carefully at the wood on the upper half of your wheel, you can see that it is a veneer with a relatively plain grain that has been "enhanced" with airbrushed darker markings to resemble burl.

If you can find a means of coloring the bare fiberglass spots to blend them in, it is unlikely the eye will pick them out once you've applied your clear finish.

One possible solution is to use furniture repair felt-tip markers to color the bare spots:

Rejuvenate Wood Furniture and Floor Repair Markers-RJ6WM - The Home Depot

If the fiberglass substrate doesn't want to accept color from the markers, you could try a real furniture finish toner, like the ones from Mohawk:

Tone Finish Toners - Mohawk Finishing

However, those are intended to be topcoated with nitrocellulose lacquer, which you probably do not want to use on a steering wheel because of its tendency to wear when handled. You might have to do a little research to be sure the toner you used is compatible with a modern acrylic clearcoat like the one from Automotive Touchup:

Spray Paint Clearcoat | Aerosol Touch Up | AutomotiveTouchup

I've used this product for refinishing wood trim in our '93, refinishing a roadwheel on our '04, finishing a Stratocaster body, and several other jobs. With proper surface preparation and application, it flows out beautifully and once cured can be wet-sanded from 800 to 2000 or 3000 grit and then hand polished to a mirror gloss with Meguiar's Scratch X or a similar fine abrasive polish (3M, etc.).

If you find you need something more opaque than a toner to cover the bare spots, you could try thinning model enamel in an appropriate brown color, and then use a small sponge or Q-tip swab/cotton bud to carefully add darker "faux grain."

I encourage you to give it a try, and please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Don

 

Don,
thanks for the links and encouragement, I'm going to give the touch-up pens a try.

 

Today I stripped, sanded, and stained the upper half. The stain is still a bit wet so its a pretty good preview of what it will look like with a finish coat. After the wood I'm going to re-stain the leather.

 

Looking good, Don!

What product do you plan to use on the leather?

 

First coat of varnish, I'm using McCloskey Man O' War Spar Varnish. It's an indoor/outdoor product with UV protection ( ). I plan on 5-6 applications and will smooth out with 0000 steel wool before re-application.

 

Looks nice Don. Do you know your approach to the leather yet?

I restored the leather on my 86 VDP some years back. 7 coats of dye with an air brush and sanded between coats with 2000 grit paper. Stripping it down was the hard part. Way too many nooks and crannies. Not my forte but turned out nice, though the front uppers required replacement as they were to roughed up.
Back then, Jaguar used doeskin and laquared the crap out of their leather.

Of course that was the entire interior.

I don't even know what kind of leather is on our cars now.

 

Don,

I hope you have better luck with spar varnish than I did when I first refinished the wood in our '93. I thought spar varnish's ability to expand and contract would be perfect for the interior wood, but I found it difficult to get a blemish-free finish, and it cured so soft that it would not polish well (it isn't designed to be wet sanded and rubbed out). And after just a couple of years it began to crack. The deterioration was faster and worse on the pieces with a metal substrate.

I've gradually refinished most of the deteriorated spar varnish with the automotive clearcoat I mentioned earlier.

I hope things go better for you.

Don

 

Well that sucks But better to find out now!

 

Don you mentioned you found a place that recovers the leather steering wheels? Do you have a referral to that place as I may need their services.