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1968 GTX Steering wheel restoration advice?

zyzzyx

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FBBO Gold Member
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Hi Guys, I have a steering wheel from my 68 GTX that I want to make look like new. No laughs or applause, Please!
It has been kept indoors out of the sunlight since way back when. Has no cracks or gaps. I have wet-sanded it with
600 wet and thought I could buff it out with some polishing compound, but it's too Gummy. Read a few posts where
people shoot clear over the surface, but because the plastic is not rock-hard, I don't want to do that. Does anyone
know what the best way to get this thing looking great again? Thanks!
 
Just my 2 cents. If it was me I think I might try a heat gun, on another old wheel first. I'd try to get the surface hot enough to flow, without heating too deeply. Most likely a very fine line between the desired effect and trashing the part. Since those parts are injection molded and they are really pliable/soft material, heat may be the only way to get back to that smooth shiny surface? I hope you find a process, I'd be very interested in learning it.
 
O.K., so it's 15 months later and I found the magic bullet! As I said previously that I had wet-sanded the wheel
with 600 wet and tried to use regular rubbing compound and a 4"wheel on a cordless drill but the material was
too "Gummy" and wasn't behaving. I had these two bottles of plastic scratch remover that I used at work on our
C.N.C. machines to keep them clear and new looking. Had them in one of my tool boxes for over ten years! Well,
I used some of this stuff and a foam pad on a small air operated buffer I had. It worked great! I was so afraid
that I would have to shoot clear over the wheel and ruin it. Here are the pic's, and yes, it is very easy!
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What a difference. Did that process you use eliminate the gummy feel?
 
Yes. It was probably the heat generated by the cotton buffing wheel schmoozing the stuff around.
The foam pad really works well with the polishing compound. I really thought my Goose was cooked.
That polishing compound feels like nothing! No grit at all, but it's just very fine. Phew!
 
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