I've wanted to do something different with the steering wheel for some time now. I especially wanted to do a leather steering wheel that would match my leather interior (which is in progress). As far as OEM leather wheels, I was kinda limited because I didn't really care for any of the stock options. Red would look ridiculous, and silver wouldn't match up very well either.

Fortunately, I came across Angelus leather paint, a family product from one of the members here, ty_max. He shipped some burgundy, red and black as well as some clear coat. The product is excellent, the shipping was fast, and I would recommend this to anyone looking to do something a little different.



Using some leather swatches, I ran a few colormatching and colorfastness tests. I found that the paint soaked into the leather swatches, and became part of the leather finish. Once the paint dried, it was very difficult to rub it off. I finally resorted to sand paper.



Now, for my victim. I found an OEM red leather wheel on ebay for about $50 shipped. Your results may vary. I taped it off with painters' tape, and went to work.





After three coats of burgundy, and one of clear, the final product looked excellent.





I used a sharpie to black out the red stitching on the unpainted portion of the wheel. It was really cool, because the red stitching actually turned out burgundy with the sharpie.



Now, on to the install. The installation was very simple, although it was a bit scary to start messing with a $500 part packed with explosives. I have the Toyota instructions if anyone needs them.
Step 1 - disconnect the negative terminal and wait 90 seconds for the airbag to loose all power



Step 2 - lock the steering wheel, and mark both the back of the column and the wheel, so that you can have a guide to installing the wheel correctly.



Step 3 - Loosen the torx t30 bolts on the sides of the wheel, behind the airbag. Once both bolts are loosened, the center wheel trim/airbag unit may be pulled toward you.



Step 4 - Release the electrical connections to the airbag. First, pull the horn connector out of it's socket in the top center of the column.



Next, using a small flathead screwdriver, lift the tabs on the positive and negative connections to the bag.







Set the airbag unit in a safe place, emblem up.



Step 5 - loosen the 19mm nut holding the wheel. Do not take it all the way off yet.



Step 6 - Pull the wheel. If you have a steering wheel puller, great! use it. I didn't, so I had to get creative. I found the the door hinge bolts have the same thread pattern as the mounting holes for the wheel puller.



That got me half of the way there, I did a little experiment with some washers, but instead of pushing the wheel off, they bent. I found a bracket for a chain link fence laying around, and drilled it to match the hole pattern on the wheel. I tightened both side evenly until the wheel popped off.



Step 7 - remove the 19mm nut completely, and take off the wheel. There are two small phillips screws holding the rear trim to the wheel. Those will need to be removed, and the trim transferred to the new wheel.

Reverse the above steps to install the new wheel. Be careful as you mount the wheel the first time that your markings on the tape match up.



The final step should be to reconnect the battery cable, and take the car for a test drive. I left my 19mm center bolt a bit loose so that I could be sure the wheel was aligned properly.

The final steps for me were to figure out how to remove the silver trim pieces (the horn buttons). I was sending them to patterntek to be dipped. They are fairly secure. They have small plastic rods that are pushed through the trim on the airbag. These rods are melted (mushroomed) on the back side of the trim. I was able to use a flathead to pry up 4 of the mushroom heads on each trim piece, but there were still two that I could not reach, and took care not to break the trim.





Voila! The final result -



Although the picture doesn't do it justice, the burgundy paint matches the car very well imo. I actually did this install about a month ago, but was waiting for some wear on the wheel before reporting back.

Well, how does the paint hold up? Glad you asked. It's awesome.
The leather paint can be found by asking Tyler, username ty_max. Thanks, Tyler!

 

Now that's nice! I think it matches your car paint well. I didnt even know there was such a thing as paint for leather.

 

Neither did I... opens up a whole new world....

 

very nice!!! i really love that alot!!!

 

Wheel puller? Can you go into this more? I just assumed you just unscrewed a few bolts and it pops off. I have a leather wheel on the way..

 

A steering wheel puller is the best way. This tool is a general use device available at part stores and is not particularly expensive. It can be used to remove most steering wheels from most cars standard or metric. It has a center piece shaped like an H, it has a big bolt in the center and an assortment of smaller diameter bolts (standard and metric) that go throught the legs of the H and screw into existing threaded holes in the steering wheel. Once you place the H peice over the center of the wheel and screw the thin bolts in (passing thru the legs of the H) you then screw the large bolt thru the center of the H and it presses on the steering shaft thereby pulling the wheel off. Get one before you try to remove a steering wheel.....or if you insist on being inventive like Cherrybox...be very careful as screwing up the steering wheel or shaft can be very costly, and can happen easily without a puller.

Nice mod btw

 

The steering wheel is held in place by the 19mm nut, but once it's off, no amount of pulling on the steering wheel is likely to break it free. honestly, I think the steering wheel would break first, if you were to just start yanking, and you'd risk a great deal of damage to the steering column.

A steering wheel puller works by attaching itself to the steering wheel, and exerting gradual pressure on the column, finally pushing the steering wheel off. In the picture below, the spline shaft at the end of the column is protected from damage by the 19mm nut that is left with 5 turns on.

http://elyxr.com/cherrybox/wheel_install_11.jpg

definitely use the proper tool if you can. I take no responsibility for anyone trying to replicate my McGuyver antics.

 

Holy crap, that's awesome! Nicely done.

 

Thanks for the infos and write up. I'll be sure to look into a puller, I had no idea.

And your new steering wheel looks great!

 

Looks good I am glad it came out how you wanted it
Now I just hope I don't get hastled for not having a sponsorship...

O well...at least you do so you can somewhat say it right?

 

How much of that paint I sent you did you actually use anyways?
You probably have enough for like a set of seats haha

 

wow that looks really good. I have never heard of painting leather until now.

 

Nicely done Tony.

 

looks great!!

BTW, you can usualy rent or borrow wheel pullers and other specialty tools like that from places like Autozone and Checker.

 

i bet he's got green

 

I still have plenty burgundy left. I am going to wait and see how this steering wheel does 6 months of use, before I start tackling more expensive things like my leather seats. I did find that this paint is exclusively for leather, however. I tried a couple of small 'pleather' things, and because the paint could not soak in, apparently, it would not stay.

I bet you could make a pretty cool pair of sneaks with this stuff, though!

 

how do you apply it? spray?

 

This is a totally 100% ignorant question BUT is this how they get different colored leather ?(like Katzkin or other brands that offer colored leather)

 

VERY NICE!!!! But you are correct....it opens up a whole new world of possiblities! This could be addicting and dagerous.

 

my dealer installed my opt. steering wheels for like 9 dollars and that i didn't want to mess with the airbags either... can't beat a 9 dollar dealer install!!!