Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Anyone know of someone repro-ing or repairing the white steering wheel used on the 51 Patrician. Mine is quite cracked. Appears to be plastic or Bakelite? Also need a source for the signal lever knob. Gearshift knob too for that matter. Anyone tried "Steering Wheel Bob"? on the internet?

Maybe someone has used a lesser wheel and painted it the correct color white? Any thoughts?

The original material was an ivory colored translucent plastic called Tenite.

I believe that the Donaldson Co in Arizona will redo them but very pricey (more than $700).

Painting the wheel from a lesser model will be a less expensive alternative. The same basic wheel was used from 1948 to 1954.

You can get the knobs from Yesterday's Radiohttp://yesterdaysradio.com/ and I believe Kanter also has some.

The early 50's Deluxe or Ivory steering wheel is a translucent plastic material and would need to be recast in the same color. A few places have been mentioned but that process not cheap. I believe one poster today gave $1200 as the figure quoted for his wheel. I don't remember any mentions of Steering Wheel Bob but his site looks like he may not be in operation at the moment. Here are a few places mentioned by othershttp://qualityrestorations.com/packard.html andhttp://www.kochssteeringwheels.com/productcart/pc/mainIndex.asp andhttp://jbdonaldsonco.com/steeringwheels/

The lower end or standard wheels were hard rubber and painted. That would be an option if you wanted to try and come close to the color but not the translucency. KevinAZ posted a thread on how he did his 55 wheel using epoxy and paint. If you did yours in that fashion and painted it to match the ivory as close as possible followed by a glossy clearcoat it might be a satisfactory look-- although not original for a true deluxe wheel.

Eastwood has a kit using that epoxy process. If you wanted to get really involved and totally redo the wheel, several sites have instructions on do it yourself repair of cast wheels. Here is one.http://www.alumilite.com/HowTos/MoldingSteeringWheel.cfm

I used qualityrestorations.com for my steering wheel restoration and they did a wonderful job. They took twice as long as quoted, but the finished product (ivory) was perfect.