Redyeing a leather steering wheel
imgur.com/a/p7B8G
imgur.comPosted Oct 30, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC
19120
imgur.comWow..
I've been doing something similar to my burgandy work boots for the passed two years to keep them in tip top shape. I have no clue why I never thought of doing something like this for my steering wheel.
I'm saving the hell out of this post. I like you a lot today OP. Have a great day.
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Sweet man. Gives me hope in returning the color and coating on my steering wheel and shifter. Mine also shows where the coating is still in places and where it's not. Also feels a bit rougher in the uncoated areas.
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Definitely worth trying. I did my shifter too(because why not) but it was not as dramatic of a difference.
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Very nice. Do you know if you can you use heat to speed up the drying process? Or do you think that could cause it to cure unevenly?
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I believe they recommend a hair dryer to speed it up.. so you can, but I think you'd want to make sure not to go with too high a temp for too long. might even make it look smoother since you'd catch the high spots sooner.
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Very cool, I've always been interested in leather restoration. The final product looks brand new! Definitely interested in trying this in the future now.
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Interior repair is something I'd like to get better at. There is a lot of focus on fixing body damage/paint but interior specialists are much harder to find from what I can tell.
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Your right, theres only one guy in my area. He's mobile too, makes a good amount from it
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Looking good. The only way to learn is to attempt. Looks like you're good to go moving forward after some lessons learned!
I've had my steering wheel replaced once for fading. Working to get it replaced again. Thank jebus for Kia warranties.
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That sounds worse than mine. You've given me some inspiration though! Can you PM me the link for all the supplies you used?
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Sure - here's the dye itself - https://www.leatherworldtech.com/Leather-World-Dye-Colorant-p/d245.htm
I used straight black. Would have been nice to see a smaller option because the rest of my interior is parchment colored. The color prep and cleaner is on that site too and they offer kits if you want to make it easy. I had a lot of the cleaning stuff around so I didn't need it.
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I'd like to know too. My Ram's steering wheel needs some love.
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I did interior restorations one of the major bmw stores in Houston. I would always suggest spraying any sort of dye. The older bmw were nightmares, all the plastic was coated with a rubberized dye that would scratch off. I custom mix all my dyes using SEM surecoat system. However for black I had SEM satin black in an aerosol can. It saved a ton of time and it’s a great product. If have to apply it with any other way I’d dab it on using a lint free towel. If you plan on having the bmw for a while pick up a can of the SEM satin black from any automotive paint store.
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Whenever I do something on my car, I will never fail to have to do it twice. Stuff takes practice and often a 2nd or 3rd run to really get it right.
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I did some minor repairing of my steering wheel this past weekend and wanted to share my results with others. This really isn't "detailing", but it's something that I'm sure plenty of people deal with and it's definitely an eyesore. I think pretty much anyone with time and patience can do this, but your results may vary depending on the condition of your wheel. I certainly would have to do a lot of trial + error if any filling was needed.
My steering wheel has been fading for a few months now. I don't know if it's just age(my car is a 2010), poor quality materials, frequency of wear, or even something I caused by cleaning it too harshly at some point... which I doubt, but could be the case. It was really shiny and sticky to the touch and the coating was flaking off near the seams of the wheel, plus it looked like garbage. I tossed around the idea of covers, custom wrapping, and I also called a couple interior repair shops that wanted >$250 to come out and redye it. A new OEM steering wheel OEM is about $320.
So at this point I decided to just try it myself for about $40. Worst case scenario is that I'd have to have a professional fix my mistake which I was willing to do, and I was confident I wouldn't make things too bad. I bought some dye and cleaner from Leather World Technologies and went to town.
First Attempt
Attempt 2
My second attempt went much better and now I'm happy with the appearance(and more importantly, the feel) of my steering wheel without covers or having to shell out a couple hundred bucks to replace it. I think if I sanded and went a little deeper on my prep it would look even better, but my application technique for the dye needs a lot of work. I would still heavily recommend these products for simple interior work. The dye colorant is actually good for leather + vinyl and is a colorant + topcoat all in one. Time will tell how durable it is, especially with my subpar prep.
TL;DR - Used a dye colorant kit to get my faded/cracking leather steering wheel back to looking and feeling good without much hassle.
This is great. I also own a 2010 TSX, and I've been spending months trying to remove that glossiness. Looks like this is the next step for me. Thank you for posting!
Hope it helps! It was a real easy process if you prep for everything. i just couldnt deal with the feeling of it anymore. you could hear my hand coming off the wheel if I held on to it in the same spot for too long. the topcoat was coming off every time i cleaned it so it definitely had to go.
this is exactly the shit I sub for, thank you.
for your second attempt, when you wanted to take off the paint you already did, you scuffed it out? how easy was that part? Im scared I will mess up on mine and doing multiple attempts.
It was really easy. I used a scotchbrite pad and it took it right off. A strong cleaner probably would have gotten most of it off too.
So, this got rid of the sticky? I'll be interested to see if it comes back after humidity hits it.
My truck is getting a sticky wheel and I hate it. Don't care how it looks but I can'st stand touching it. I see this a lot of leather gear shift knobs as well.
Yes. It feels smooth, appears matte, and is soft to the touch now. Sometimes the problem is buildup and can be cleaned but sometimes the material just breaks down... I could see it peeling up and flaking so I knew that was the case but I've also stripped down other steering wheels using good leather cleaners and gotten rid of the tacky/sticky feeling that occurs with oil/conditioner buildup.