To be honest, I never really liked our stock leather steering wheel.
The diameter is a tad skinny and it has this hideous "sutures" stitching along the seams. It reminds of some bad Frankenstein ER work every time I look at it.








So, I'm going to do something about it.
Got my hands on some nice cowhide >






Test fit and feel >








Need to take some measurements >










Now I just need to digitize the measurements in Illustrator and produce some cut shapes to feed to my CNC plotter.


I want to add some thumb rests similar to these >


And, stitch work should be more like this (preferably in red.)>



To be continued...

 

Wow that's crazy. I installed a leather steering wheel cover for my Mustang once and that was enough! My fingers were so sore afterwards, I can't even imagine making my own custom cover!

 

Brother you know me..
Got to try before I know I can do it.
I'm sure I'll fail on my first attempt(S) too. Either on the size portion or getting the stitch lined up right. That's why I got myself the extra large hide just in case I need to make some extra adjustments to the cut. I'm hard headed like that.

And all this because of the original OEM stitchings and the lack of thumb rests buged me to no end.

Am I OCD??


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Side Note -
How come Mitsubishi doesn't make Stock steering wheels with thumb rests? Especially on newer (2013+) vehicles?
I saw some on 2006 Eclipses...
What the heck?

(Is this even stock? Or, some add-on??)

They got something against thumbs??

 

Just a quick&dirty measure for the thickness and 10 & 2 o'clock specs..







Hopefully, I'll get some free time tonight to get the shape-templates produced.
I can't wait to cut some leather!

 

This is an interesting project, have you worked with leather previously? Quite the craftsman.

 

Thank you.
Well, I'm no leathersmith..
But, I enjoy working with hand tools, if I can touch it and see it in person. Usually I can do something about it. I've made leather quivers to hold arrows and such & my mom was a home seamstress way way back in the day, so I picked up a few pointers I suppose.

Plus, I studied drafting back in jr.high and took the standard woodworking classes. Went on to college for M.E. thinking I would design&build rockets... psst! I was not smart enough for that. My creativity didn't include mastering physics theorems...

Any how, I thought > surely I'm not the only member here that found our stock steering wheels a bit stale and boring... 'Someone must've done something about it.' After searching around on the forum & the Web, I didn't find anybody that can/will put thumbrests onto steering wheels that didn't have them already...

And I can't stand those silly steering wheel covers that doesn't cover the spokes correctly.

So, I figure why not take a crack at this myself.

 

Cool, I'd like to see the 9 and 3 areas to have suede like that Merc wheel does. It's a nice look.

 

No doubt, it looks really nice!
And, I appreciate your enthusiasm... however, I haven't even cut the hide I have on hand yet.

Personally, I don't think I'm going to do suede though.
My hands are very rough and clammy like a tiger's tongue so don't want suede that's only going to absorb it like a sponge.

 

Okay...
Burned a little midnight oil and got the measurements digitized & drafted the rough cut design/shapes >








Also, I had some scrape material lying around.. so once I get these shapes converted to CNC files, I'll cut the first prototype from these vinyl cloths...




After that I'll whip out the old sewing machine and stitch those cut pieces together and do a test fittings.

 

So the plotter is just to draw the templates onto the leather? Or do you have a router with a blade attached?

Can't wait to see progress on this, is the original wrap bonded to the wheel? Bet that will be fun if so..

 

^
Correct.
I have a plotter and it's to make exact traces of the shapes once I finalized the design.
Basically my plan is to produce standard vinyl-sticker templates that will be used as "guides" on the actual leather and then cut & stitch manually.

A 3D CNC router would be cool!!
But, I would need to cut probably 20-30 layers of leather at once to be cost effective, perhaps that'll be something for me to look into in the future.
For now, I'll just do it the old fashion way.

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You mean the original steering wheel's leather? I believe it's bonded to the metal frame within. I certainly don't plan on taking it apart.

I've already tested the new leather over 'original' and the thick nap on the underside of the leather that I have currently is quite adequate to "adhere" to the wheel without any adhesive or bonding agent. Plus, the way I intend to diamond stitch the seam together should be more than enough to hold the leather wrap in place.

I'll find out soon enough... If not, I can always use a small amount of Polyken 108-FR tape on the backside.

 

Since I have sweaty palms...
I've thought about using perforated leather for the sides/thumb-rest areas. So, I was able to pick up a nice piece >



and some additional supplies >


leather thread-hole punch


thread (in colors navy blue, black, and some white)


specialized curved and angled needles



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Got the "shape" files converted and ready for cutting >


Making the cut on some inexpensive vinyl (pink is pretty)




Transfer vinyl "cut-guides" onto test materials.


Going to take a break to play with my baby daughter.

And, will continue manual trimming of the materials and then stitch the pieces together after my wife and I catch tonight's Game of Thrones episode.

To be continued..

 

A bit of a delay.. but I'm still in the game.

Manually cutting out the vinyl test pieces -




Peeling off the cut-guide


more cutting..


peel..




Finally all the bits



Time to stitch..
I won't bore you with the stitching videos. So here's the cliffnote pics >






Need to do a test fit next..

 

That is super cool! Nice job. Can't wait to see the results.

 

Cool , you really are a DIY'er cant wait to see how this turns out . the one thing about the steering wheel that bugs me is the flappy paddles arent mounted to the wheel and are tough to reach in a spirited corner ( at least with short fingers )