Steering wheels

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Hello everyone. I’ve always wanted to wrap a steering wheel and finally have access to one that I plan to do. There’s just a few questions I had. I’m not new to wrapping items nor to other aspects of it but I ask advice from more experienced members because well, there’s always better ways to do things.

But first the materials
-epoxy, I’ve always used west system due to the easy use and quality but my fear since their tg is extremely low that things will warp and lift. That has happened before due to high temperatures in the cabin of a car. I have also tried carbon fiberglass lamination epoxy and some off eBay but nothing works well for my technique. The catbonfiberglass epoxy is ok, but I believe each layer needs to cure before brushing on an additional layer. The west system was nice because you could coat multiple layers after each has flashed.

  • material. Of course carbon fiber but the under layers could be fiberglass and then carbon the last two layers? Also I want 2x2 pattern but wrapping 1/4th the way around a steering wheel may be hard. Would 2x2 sleeping do the trick since it’s already flexible with no tracers?

  • technique.
    First technique. I’m thinking build up the first layers of fiberglass and carbon. And wrap with heat shrink tape. Then do the exact same for the out most layer.

Second technique. I’m thinking about sealing the portion somehow in a vacuum bag.

-fabric cutting. I’ve never really had to precisely cut fabric. Only once and I used masking tape and cut. This wasn’t a huge deal since later that tape portion was cut off. But if I want my seam to be invisible or in the back what would everyone suggest? I think doing the inner layers first, then masking take the outside layer, slicing the masking tape and transferring that to carbon would work but maybe not?

Any advice is appreciated. This steering wheel has 3 seconds to wrap. Two flat bottom portions about 4 inches long and a top portion of about 10 inches long.

#2

What is the material underneath as this will be the primary thing you need to bond to. Is it a plastic with a low surface energy that’s not good for sticking stuff too or is it something solid with a good bonding surface?

Two layers should be enough, most of the time one is fine if you have a black surface underneath, why have you thought of using more?

For something the shape of a steering wheel, I would be careful with shrink wrapping onto it as you could get a lot of ridges that would need sanded afterwards which wont be overly great for a nice visual part. Bagging could work where you actually don’t wrap the full wheel with carbon, leave perhaps 5mm around the back, non-visible side of it where you can push the excess material and avoid wrinkling at the front visual surface. You could do this for your final layer perhaps if you know what I mean?

#3

The steering wheel is metal. I hear you about the shrink tape but I plan to do sanding afterwards anyways.

#4

Anyone ever use fiberglass.com epoxy 2000? I tend to stay away from them since they’re expensive but this epoxy sounds pretty good.

#5

I am wondering why so many layers for a wrap. If the wheel is a solid material then it just needs one layer.

I have done one steering wheel a few years ago. This was a rubber over cast metal type steering wheel. It was wrapped with one layer of pre preg and vacuum bagged at 100 deg C. Then hand sanded and coated with an epoxy resin coat, then two pack clear paint.

Pics here https://www.facebook.com/Fastacraft/posts/600749803400288

#6

Ah ok. Well the layers were only to be added after the padding was taken off. That’s if there is padding or a lot of it. A lot meaning a few 3-5mm or so. If not then a layer of two would be fine.

#7

It’s not something that I like to do but I have done a few steering wheels as favors. Here are a couple pics of some…

The process will depend some on the wheel itself. If you have a hard plastic area to cover it is a lot easier. What I did on a couple in the pics is to cut a groove where the end of the carbon will meet the leather. I also cut a deep groove on the back side that follows the curve of the wheel. I then wrap the carbon and stuff the ends into the grooves so that the cut edge isn’t exposed. I think I vac bagged it and then just built up epoxy.
The orange one didn’t already have the area cut out, so I had to cut the rubbery wheel material and then build up the foam with some glass. After that it was similar but the ends of the rubber were just cut and didn’t tuck next to the carbon, so I ran the epoxy up to the rubber and added a little black paint.

Have fun it can be tedious work.

#8

Those pictures look great and the last one especially is what I’m looking to do.

Did you use regular 2x2 or a harness 2x2?

Also how did you attend to the leather cover? Did you end up taking it entirely off and get it redone later or did you peel and cut it slightly where the carbon meets. Mans then at the end when you’re done the carbon cut the leather and just restitch the end somehow?

#9

I think that wheel was 2 layers of standard 3k 2x2 twill.
If you’re able to peal the leather back a bit and then re-stitch it, that’s what I’d recommend. I didn’t do that but probably should have. I just taped off the leather and tried to be really careful in applying the epoxy and even more careful in sanding the resin.