MTFCA Forum

Greetings,

I'm in the process of sprucing up my steering wheel. The spider has been cleaned up and painted and now it's time for the wheel itself. It did not have the smoothest finish to start with, so I cleaned it up and finished smoothing it with fine Scotchbrite. It looks great, has a dull gray finish to it, and I'm not opposed to leaving it like that, but is that what it's supposed to look like?

What was Henry's original finish for them? Was the entire wheel assembly painted black back then? And if painting is the next step, is there a certain paint I should be looking for?

Looking forward to hearing what others have done.

Thanks.

Steve

I just waxed mine. I am sorry I do not recall what wax I used. Johnson's paste was should work fine.

I got tired of my hands being black after going for a ride so I scrubbed it down about the same as you did and before reassembling it to the spider I gave it several coats of rattle can satin clear coat. It's been about three years and 3,000 miles now and no black residue so far. Jim

I sand them down progressing to finer and finer sandpaper then polish them on my buffing wheel. I think they come out better than painting them.

Soiled hands after use would have been my next question! Mine were okay handling it after wiping it down after the sanding, but I wondered if actual driving would eventually dirty up the hands.

Did the clearcoat darken down the wheel any, making it appear more black than gray? Or did the gray appearance remain?

Some old posts
This goes through sanding to finish https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/1 ... 00802.html
https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/1 ... 1321499600
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Warp fix https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/1 ... 1292601172

I did satin clearcoat like Jim described, did it years ago & sanded to 320 before coating, coating made it appear black. If you remove rim be sure to use correct stainless steel 'Fordite' screws to attach it to the spider or you risk a break. Respectfully, jb

They only get sticky and blacken your hands when they get wet.

A few years ago someone was making a reproduction black T wheel. It was just the black ring. It got some good reviews. Anybody know what they were made of?

John: From an earlier post,
https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/4 ... 1416837864

By Dan Treace, North FL on Sunday, November 23, 2014 - 04:14 pm:

As for the spider arms. They are pressed steel and can be pressed flat on a flat surface. Just did that for a 17" spider I found and cleaned and painted. The rim from another 17" was fine and in good shape, they are hard to come by lately.

However, that 16" rim you have, made of Fordite, is just not able to be straighted again.
Sorry But too much age and hardening.

Many times the larger Improved Car 17" rims become egg-shaped or oval too. No luck to fix that. Same with the 16" in my picture.

But, Bob's Antique Auto Parts has made new rims for the 16" and in ABS plastic, cost only $50 are terrific replacement.

From two earlier posts above https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/1 ... 1292601172
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from another

https://www.modeltford.com/item/3501BL.aspx
New reproduction wheel from Langs

Painted mine black so my hands wouldn't be.

I wax mine, and always wear gloves.

I will probably just go with the satin spray finish. The buffing and polish method looks great, though!

My trouble with that method is that the steering wheel would then look way better than the rest of the car!

Thanks for all the replies.

Steve

A question would be if the original fordite wheels over time began to sort of deteriorate or if it was always a concern when they were new in the teens and twenties.
Maybe Ford had a steering wheel cleaner sold at the dealers? It would seem that Ford wouldn’t want new owners to have dirty hands after a while. And especially women drivers wearing white gloves!