I had a first attempt at recovering my old moutney steering wheel with black Alcantara suede/leather (1m x 1.5m cost £12).... there were a few wrinkles one the inside part of the rim and the join/stitching began to twist a bit. I have loads of material left, so I will have another go, but does anyone have any tips on avoiding the wrinkles and twisting? I thought of using some clamps next time to hold the stretched material and to glue (contact adhesive) as I go along rather than in one go on my first attempt?

Your fabric is probably not cut correctly.

It should have a shape like <==========> rather than a rectangle [===============]

Apologies for rubbish drawing.

Basically the centre-line of the fabric needs to be the length of the OUTER circumference of the wheel, whereas the two edges of the fabric should be the length of the INNER circumference of the wheel.

The width of the fabric should be the circumference of the actual foam bit, although reduce this by 1-2mm to let it stretch and not be saggy.

If I had photoshop at work i'd probably be able to illustrate what I'm trying to say a bit better

Pavel

quote:

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Originally posted by PSpirine
If I had photoshop at work i'd probably be able to illustrate what I'm trying to say a bit better

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wheel cover

Yes that's much clearer, thanks

Only thing is I'd recommend rounding the edges slightly rather than having a point. More =) rather than => makes the join neater.

Good luck

^^ like this then ?


wheel cover v2

Thanks for your help. I will have a go at shaping the ends and see if I can get it to fit properly. I just watched a vid on youtube which showed this, where they sewed the ends together to form a wrapped circle, fitted it over the wheel and then sewed the inner edges.

I will post some pictures of attempt 2 later this week.

Just an off-the-cuff thought.
If you have any mates/contacts in Berwick on Tweed ask them if they know anyone who worked for Springalex.
They used to make steering wheels up there.
Bet your bottom dollar some-one knows some-one who sewed the covers on.
Cheers, Pewe10 .

Tried again last night....

Cutting the material as per the diagram suggested does not help, as you need to stretch it so the the centre line on the material is the circumfrance of the outer wheel, and the edges of the material fit the inner circumfarnce. Ultimately it ends up a similar shape, but it must be stretch to form this shape. So I had another go and used a few clamps, stretched, glued and sewed a bit at a time and managed to stretch the material enought to complete the recovering with only a couple of wrinkles that I can live with. Overall, it is a tough job that took about 3 hours to compete, and I would advise using a natural material like leather, as the synthetic material I used did not stretch as much as I needed.

I will post a picture of the 2nd attempt tomorrow.

Thanks.

Mathew