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Considering buying a Custom Eight sedan. The steering wheel is badly cracked. I have seen these that have been repaired/recast, but they always appear to be painted, and the original appears to be an opaque plastic without paint. Does anyone know of a company that can recast these as original?

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Here's a YouTube talking about the process, kinda interesting.

youtu.be/v6LgkkBgq8g?si=rP8DXNm3gAopEe0x

Very interesting. Thank you. It helps me to understand how labor-intensive the process is, and also that it can be done. I imagine it is very expensive.

There was a comment that from someone that said they had been quoted $2500 and 18 months. 😬 There are a couple of places online, one in Australia that I see talked about a couple of times.

Let us know what you find, and end up doing.

A friend of mine recently had the steering wheel from his 23rd series recast by Steering Wheel Bob in Stockton, NJ. He was quite pleased with the results and turn around time.

I don't know if any videos were posted or if anyone has closely compared the two side by side but wasn't Ross able to make a very passible version of the later deluxe wheels. Those were also somewhat translucent like the earlier beige Tennite wheels but were more white or ivory in color -- much like the one shown as restored. I think he did it by painting a regular wheel a certain ivory or whiteish color followed by several coats of clear and a bit of polishing. The clear added the depth to simulate the translucency. If he could approximate the later wheel perhaps by using a different shade of paint the slightly darker beige wheels could be done in a similar fashion. Might also be an option if the cost of a professional restoration is a consideration.

KevinAz did his 55 wheel himself. Those were only painted originally but his did have cracks and chunks missing. There was a thread on the forum where he posted several photos showing his procedure and the epoxy filler used. If those photos survived the server changeover it might provide some useful info that could be done to that wheel

I also had one done for my '39 by steering wheel Bob. Very quick turn around and pleased with the results.

Quality Restorations, Inc is another west coast guy that's done "P"s. He quoted me about $750 back about 8-9 years ago. Not sure what he gets these days. Nothing is "indexed" in the hobby realm.

There's two methods, one is to repair/make whole with solid epoxy and paint, ie, the epoxy color won't match. Have to have all the trim wings and doo-dads, ie start with a complete wheel.
The other is to remove all the factory plastic and put in a mold and recast as original. That's what the best resto do. They have to have a mold for your particular wheel.
I started to epoxy repair the one on the '49 and it's a chore when in sad condition. I figured I'd just replace w/ custom steering column/wheel & PS, if it ever gets done.
For the Cad, it wasn't that bad, no missing pieces but ugly, I got a 2 tone "Wheelskins" leather cover that you stitch on. They're < $100 /complete kit. Quite nice and affordable and looks good. That could be an easy out here.