Re: cracks in steering wheel

Posted by Fish'n Jim On 2016/4/26 20:23:55

My '49 wheel is brown but the under plastic is very dark brown or black. The common method is using PC-7 epoxy putty to fill the cracks, then you sand them and paint. I started but never finished mine yet...
Looking at those cracks, they're dark inside. So either they have accumulated dirt or the under material is dark.
If I had this problem,
1. I'd take a dental pick and clean out the grooves down to clean material.
2. Clean with rubbing alcohol and dry. Alcohol will also cut epoxy for clean up but don't thin with it. It won't cure right.
3. Fill with a matching color epoxy. I'd use slow cure and tint. It's about the same shade starting off. May not even show. Even fingernail polish in the right shade would work, but you have to apply several coats to fill the space. There might be some epoxy sticks or tint kits for fixing plastics or wood that might also work.
4. Sand and buff out.

As plastic ages it shrinks due to continued polymerization and loss of volatiles/break down products. The material in the crack surface can oxidize so it won't "grow" or heal back with solvent, you have to fill it. That's why you want to dig it out first, to get a good "tooth".