Four piece steering wheels?

[hull 433]

The steering wheel on the Ghost is made of four pieces.

I’ve heard of one and two piece wheels, but not four, and the encyclopedia and judging guidelines don’t offer any details. Is there a story here, and is this accurate for a 1915 car?

[A Whiteman]

Probably wrong marque for this forum....

[Wayne Sheldon]

Adrian, "Ghost" is an affectionate name for a specific model T, known to some for a number of years.

I have seen several four piece wooden steering wheel rims over the years. Most of them were reproductions made in the 1950s through the 1970s. I would suspect that would be what you have. What sort of joints does the rim have? Finger joints similar to the original ones? Or something similar. One of my cars has an eight piece wooden rim. Two halves with four parts each full circumference glued together with the butt-cut joints offset to be held together by the opposing circumference. (Does that all make sense?) I have had it for over fifty years and understood it was a recent reproduction when I bought it. I have had it on a couple different Ts before the one it is on now. I use it for a bit, then get a better one to replace it.

I have seen several believed to have been original era T two-part wooden rims over the years. I can't recall seeing any four part original rims. But that is me.

[hull 433]

Thanks for the reply, Wayne.

I'd wondered if it was a repro sourced during the time of its first restoration in the 60s. It has finger joints however. If it's not right, it might be time to look for a more accurate one, especially now that two of the joints are coming loose.

Never heard of an eight piece wheel - there must be a story there.

[old_charley]

Here's a couple of pictures of the steering wheel on "Otis". Same construction as Wayne's, but with 12 pieces!

[Steve Jelf]

My 1915 runabout came to me in 2011 with no steering wheel. I went to Chickasha and bought this. In the twelve years I drove the car, how many people ever told me it was incorrect, wrong, unusual, or remarkable? Zero. None. Nobody. I spent considerable time and effort getting things on that car "correct". This wasn't one of them.

[James_Lyons-WV]

I have one of the earliest known Touring cars, (engine assembled in late January) and the car has many 1914 features. Regardless, the car is basically unrestored and has been in constant service for its entire life. The steering wheel on this car is of one-piece construction with about half the original paint intact. I'm not knowledgeable on wood working, and don't know the terminology, but this wheel is of solid construction with one joint that is a "finger joint" for lack of correct description.

[hull 433]

Jim, that's a beautiful wheel, thanks for posting the photos, it looks very solid. Everything about your car is very cool.

Two original one-piece wheels have since become available from people long familiar with the Ghost and its maker. Looking forward to fitting one on the car.

Wayne, thanks for the background on the four-piece repros, plus their eight piece cousins. Makes a lot of sense for the 50s-70s. Glad your wheel held together.

[DHort]

Am I correct in assuming that 'Ghost' is the name of your car?

[A Whiteman]

Adrian, "Ghost" is an affectionate name for a specific model T, known to some for a number of years.

Thanks Wayne - you learn something new every day !

[Rich P. Bingham]

Is there really such a thing as a one piece wheel rim ? The problem of steam-bending a single piece to meet accurately in a finger joint boggles my mind !! I would love to know how that was done !!

Meanwhile, I replaced the badly worn column in my T with a very original and lightly used 1914 unit (thanks to Tom Rootleib). As the spider from the previous wheel was nicely painted, I chose to swap its wooden rim for the old, original. That’s when I noted quite a difference in the rim profiles - the “restored one” had a lot of bondo at the attachment points to make up a gap - the original fit the spider perfectly and sort of snapped in place.

Here’s a look at the finger joints, the 1914 is two-piece.