cdarko

Attention: A lot of redneck engineering ahead!!!

First of all lets make some paddles.

We will start with some scrap aluminum sheets.



After some cutting and grinding . . .









Lets add some mahogany, its just some old guitar headstock veneer



Now lets add some plexi. Here it is rough cutted



After some sanding it fitted nicely, then I put in some LEDs









Lets test it, - is red and + will be green . . . Somehow its logic to me . . .




Wood glued to paddle with some epoxy and rough cutted





Some sanding and shaping later . . .







And after some paint lacquer

cdarko

Lets move to steering wheel itself

I bought second hand wheel from local scrapyard, just in case . . .
Strip it down to the frame







Bottom part is cutted and straighten then welded back to the place




Now we will use brake rotor from old Yugo, few screws, some mahogany planks and lathe. This is how it looks like




Turning this bad boy was a bit scary, but results were worth it
I made two sets of these.



Cutted and preshaped




That is for circular part of the wheel and heres for the bottom part.
Here are two planks hold tighter with some wire and electrical tape.
On inner sides is a channel cutted on vertical mill.
Here is how it looks on lathe.



After some turning . . .











Time for some gluing. Wood is glued with wood glue Center channel is filled with Bison montage kit.







When everything was glued together wheel looked like chunk of mahogany




After a lot of grinding . . .






There is only one piece to be made




And now, sanding time!





That's it for now guys.
Stay tuned update is coming in few days. Sorry for my engrish

OnlyGerman

Very interesting

S70Houston

Someone has too much time on their hands.

Izrud

Although I reserve judgement until the final product, I think what you are doing is pretty cool. I would not put something like that in my own car, but I am a diy'er at heart and love when people try new and interesting things.

I think those paddle shifters need a second attempt lol.

If nothing else you have provided entertainment to the forum - which is much appreciated. Keep the pic updates coming.

Good luck and don't forget to enjoy a beer or two while working :beer:

kjb55

Incredible effort!! There is DIY and there is this - another level of DIY.

ap10046

hahaha...that's fantastic!

cdarko

Here is the update!!

I bought the leather. Black one is for the top of wheel and perforated one for sides. Green leather is just some junk I had sitting around. It will be used for forming a teamplate.






In a meantime I have done another DIY, it was fun&easy. Multicolor interior lighting.











Just remove bunch of panels, run some wires and RGB LED strips.
You can change colors and intensity by remote which is realy nice.
Look sooo good in nighttime. Here it is on passenger side . . .






Now lets go back to the wheel.










I made cuts on both sides of the wheel. They wil be used for hiding leftovers of leather. White stuff is just some acrylic putty I used to fill holes and dents.



Kendaprene glue is used for gluing leather onto the wood . .. .





First stage done, so far so good.
Next update in 4-5 days.

Bahnstormer

cdarko

Its been a while but here I am . . .










Now lets switch to other side







Now lets expose the wood and protect leather





Wood is covered in polyester resin. In meantime lets see what we can do for shifter boot, its has been through some rough time . . . Its 250k miles car after all . . .


New leather will be a perfect match with wheel and veneer will be replaced with thick piece of mahagony






Here it is disassembled . . .



I have cut new leather and took it to another guy for sewing because I don't have right sewing machine for the job. . .





Back to the wheel. . . I was hit by polyester disaster. Resin I bought was outdated or something. It didn't want to cure, it wasn't sticking to the wood, etc etc. . . It was one big sticky mess . . .



I had to peel everything off and start all over again. Weather was rainy and moisture was high so I recreated perfect conditions using old oven, moisture meter, IR temperature sensor and new resin


I got it right this time



Just started sanding P80





Half way through P320 P400wet



Sanding done P800wet P2000wet


Both pieces polished with foam buffing wheel and some car paint polish solution.





It was real pain in the A to clean perforated leather!!!





For the end, Before and After photo




You can see that shifter isn't complited yet
I gived up paddle shifter. They look nice but theyre usless and I ran a test for few days with them and they constantliy get in the way of cruise control and turn signals. Maybe one day I will come up with better design . . .

Total cost of the project 36$
For that money result are astonishing . . .

If you find this any interesting I will keep posting "from scratch" projects and others DIYs . . .

Bahnstormer

"Total cost of the project 36$."

What about your time?
How many hours you have into this?

NewShockerGuy

Gotta admit I thought it was looking like *** in the beginning but then the last pictures I'm in awe. Good job man! Steering wheel looks really good.

I'm down to see more of the stuff you are doing so keep posting your DIY!

-Nigel

cdarko

I estimate it is about 50 work hours, give or take. . .

Izrud

Really impressive work mate! For something you made essentially out of scratch it is truly great looking and appreciate your handiness.

If you were to do this again I am sure you would end up with something anyone would envy - maybe think of way to treat and polish the wood before gluing the leather. Additionally I think practice would yield a better result when gluing the leather after having done it once.

cdarko

Thanks!!!

Main problem was that my leather was 2.5 thicker than original one, so it was a bit of struggle . . .

albania

just wow

cdarko

Thank you, my neighbor

albania

you did an excellent job and guide too