Hi everyone,
My caramel steering wheel looks crapy and dirty and as it has already been redone (colourlock i guess) by the previous owner, I don't want to had some more plasticky finish to it.
So I wonder if any of you knows about a manufacture who does standard leather cover ,ready to be stitched in place of the original one.... but in caramel colour?
There's some available on aliexpress for 35$ but they don't have the caramel colour...
I could have it done here through a leather workshop but that would be around 250$...
I could make it myself... but don't know where to find caramel leather.

So, if any of you knows where they could be ordered,( or where I could order pieces of original caramel leather) that'ld be great.
Thanks.

 

My suggestion would be to look up a "sellier" in your area and ask him for a quote to clean up and restore the steering wheel's leather...

 

The thing is it's not restorable...The leather grain has been attacked. It has already been repainted with what I guess was colourlock system, but I don't like the aspect and it was getting dirty.
The leather has to be changed.

 

I do believe that's what George meant; have the leather guy put new leather on it. That's actually a much better fix and not a lot more than trying to fix what's there. Most reputable leather guys won't 'repair' crappy leather anyway. Replace is the answer.

 

There's not so much leather workshop in France
But luckily there's one not too far from my country house. They asked...320Euros! and...they first need to source the leather (Which mean they don't want to have to buy a full hide)..
that's around 345$! ...To me that's way too much for what it is...

 

A shop local to me replaced the leather on my XK8, for $150. I had to take it to him loose though.

 

Have you looked up "sellerie" in the yellow pages?
I'm surprised you didn't find many, especially since you're around Paris currently...
Your other option would be to buy a "new" XF / XK wheel on eBay...much cheaper. At the risk, however, to have a slight colour mismatch.
An artisan would be able to reproduce the colour.

 

thats how I found there was a sellier close to my country house.
But I'll wait until I'm back in Town and will use this as an excuse to explore Paris suburbs visiting leather shops.
That's crazy they are not readily available...ready to be installed...I mean, the chinese have it, but they just don't produce Caramel color...
Will search for a full wheel (although I hate throwing useable parts away) but caramel aren't that common.Otherwise if i get my hands on a hide, I'll try to make it myself.