Period correct way to wrap a steering wheel?

I bought the Wheelskins for my wife's car. It was easy to put on, looks great, and feels good. I recommend looking at their website.
 
Vic & Old Henry should start their own fashion line:cool:. I have a few good names in mind that the devil made me think off. But to keep friends I best not print them . I think I'm possessed.:o Been having weird dreams lately also.:eek: :D :D :D
 
CBoz said:
Old Henry ==> Ya gotta dress from top to bottom or it doesn't count ;). BTW, I have saddle shoes like that I wear regularly
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Great outfits! Gorgeous wife and car!

Here's how I like to drive:

For the ladies (Yeah, that's my gorgeous ma that's 80 years old sitting in the front with me. She used to drive us to school in this car when I was a kid.):

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For the parade:

OremSummerfestParadebyDoug6-13-09.jpg


By the lake:

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Just kidding. The last one was actually one of the park rangers - woman as I recall.
 
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Back to the steering wheels...many olde racers used string to wrap their steering wheels, mostly on circle track cars here and on sports/racing cars in England and Europe...
I am a complete klutz with knots and such and haven't yet found a decent how-to on the technique, but it results in a very nice looking and grippy wheel with grip diameter considerably increased. I bet there is a how-to on the HAMB somewhere...
Went looking for a picture and of course the search went directly to the HAMB:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=576060

The '40 Merc wheel shown is very similar to the racecar look.
I'm interested beacuse all the early Ford wheels I love require a rather tense grip due to that diameter; they require grip considerably tighter than the natural relaxed grip of the human hand and so are a bit tiring. Ford had that diameter right on the Model A...
 
I saw a reproduction race car at Bonneville years ago that had a wrapped steering wheel. He used twine about 3/16 diameter, tightley wound with a square knot behind one of the spokes. He then gave it a coat of spar varnish. It was very nice, grippy, never slippery, and had a great color.
 
I have wrapped quite a few over the years and if you experiment with twine types and gauges (diameter), it is possible to do a running splice every so often with different color twine and get a very colorful wheel. You can also use 2 or 3 different color twines at a time as shown in one of the pics on the HAMB.
 
I just worked on an old british sports car that had the wheel wrapped with wilsons baseball bat tape. It was comfortable and never slippery.
 
Besides the driving gloves I like to wear, I have a very nice color matched Brody knob on my wheel. That's what I do my turning, and most of my steering, with single handed. (AKA suicide knob) Beats the gloves or any kind of wrap by a long shot.

Here are 1,500 to choose from: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=1947+ford&_sop=10&_osacat=0&_sticky=1&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A5335&_sc=1&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=steering+knob&_sacat=0

Be sure to get the kind that clamps around the spoke of the wheel, not the rim. Here's mine (looks like my wheel's ready for a new coat of paint):

SuicideKnob.jpg
 
FL&WVMIKE said:
Henry Floored ..............
I decided to take a couple photos for you. The flash made them a little brighter than real-life, but they almost look like period leather ones.
I agree, I too, like the feel of a heftier steering wheel.
MIKE :)
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Hey Mike, did you get a kit for those wheel covers or did you do them yourself?
 
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