[AJD] Steering wheel restoration 1939 H

[Dean VP]

Bill:

Hopefully someone on the list can give you a more specific answer but I have
seen somewhere, specific coating material intended for steering wheels.
Probably in an automotive restoration environment. I doubt conventional
metal paint is going to stick to the material the original tractor steering
wheel was made out of. It's maybe a rubber compound or even more like
bakelite. Therefore it will probably not pick up the original look and
texture. 

I've seen a paint or a coating specifically for steering wheels but now
cannot give you a good reference other than Tip Tools sells a kit that
probably has one of the ingredients you need.  I'm sure the kit below is
designed for a normal automotive steering wheel rather than a tractor
steering wheel.

www.tptools.com

Kit includes: POR-15® Epoxy Putty™, contoured sanding block, red scuff pad,
gloves, polyester primer and surfacer with hardener, spray bottle for primer
and enamel, high-gloss polishing compound, saw, file, drill bit, Marine
Clean™, sanding board, tack cloth, and gray scuff pad sandpaper. Made in
USA.

I think the biggest problem you have is to get whatever coating you put on
to stick permanently. 

I've not taken on the task you are trying to accomplish. I take the easy way
out and just buy a replacement reproduction steering wheel. They really are
not all that expensive if you consider your labor has some value. 

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

Forbidden fruits create many jams!

www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
Bill Brueck
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 1:07 PM
To: 'Antique John Deere mailing list'
Subject: [AJD] Steering wheel restoration 1939 H

 
I'm getting to the finishing touches before I paint my H.  

The steering wheel had a few nasty cracks but was otherwise pretty good.  So
I filled them with JB Weld and filed them down sorta OK.  I'm not much of a
sculptor.  But I thought if I painted it with flat black when I got done,
the imperfections wouldn't show up all that much.

Problem is that the nice new can of flat black Rust-Oleum I bought goes on
real shiny.  I thought maybe it was reacting with the grip material so I let
it dry real well and coated it again.  It still looks shiny.

So I bought a can of cheap flat black enamel from Fleet Farm.  I didn't put
it on the wheel yet but I did do a test paint on a board, alongside of a
test of the RustOleum.  Both samples look pretty shiny to me.

What am I missing here?

B²
 
Bill Brueck (brick)
Chatfield, MN, USA
 
Confusion is a higher state of knowledge than ignorance.


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