How to Re-Cover Your Corvette Steering Wheel
Steering wheels are not generally considered to be a consumable item on your car, but Corvettes measure their working lives in decades, so it's entirely likely that you will wear through your steering wheel wrapping over time. Most Corvettes down through the years have featured leather-wrapped wheels, and the combined effects of skin oil, wedding rings, and UV radiation take their toll over time.
This original Corvette steering wheel has seen better days. We'll give it a new covering that will both look great and feel nice in the driver's hands.
If your steering wheel cover is torn, worn, or just grungy and faded, you can put a fresh leather wrap on it in just about an hour in your driveway. What's even better is that you can have a professional, factory-sewn look when you're done. And for older cars with a hard and skinny wheel ring, adding a wrapping layer can make driving more comfortable on your fingers.
Look through the following steps to find out how to restore your wheel with a new leather wrapper. Note that this is not restoration in the strict sense of putting your Corvette back to assembly-line condition, but rather using an accessory kit to effect a repair. However, for most Corvettes, installing this accessory is a repair that will restore your steering wheel to usable and attractive condition.
Get the Right Size Cover
The product we're going to install is a Corvette Wheelskin steering wheel cover. I've tried a number of different wheel wrappers over the years, and Wheelskins are substantially better than any other brand I've tried. This is one product I endorse without reservation, and for those who are of a suspicious mindset, I've paid for each and every one I have ever used, and I have no other connection to the company.
UV radiation, wedding rings, and time all take their toll on real leather steering wheel wrappers. This one cannot be saved, so we'll cover it with a new wrapper.
To find out which size you need, visit the Wheelskins website and enter the year, make, and model of your car, and choose the color of Wheelskin you want. In the case of the About.com Project Corvette, the answer was a size AX Wheelskin, and I chose a nice burgundy color. If your Corvette is older than 1975, simply measure the wheel's outside diameter and grip circumference and enter that information into the Wheelskins website calculator.
Prepare the Steering Wheel
Do NOT strip off the stock leather covering from your steering wheel! The Wheelskin cover is designed and sized to go on over your stock leather wrapping. Do strip off any other aftermarket wheel covers and trim off any loose shards of leather that might bunch up under the Wheelskin. Position the Wheelskin on the wheel with the single seam at the 6 o'clock position when the wheel is in its normal straight-up position. Note that all the stitch holes have been pre-punched in the Wheelskin for you.
To start sewing your new cover on the wheel, position the seam at 6 o'clock and start sewing in the bottom half of the wheel.
Start Stitching Your Wheel's New Cover
The Wheelskin kit comes with a thick needle and a supply of heavy waxed fibrous thread. Unspool the thread and insert one end into the eye of the needle normally. The Wheelskin kit provides specific instructions for how to start the sewing. I usually start at the 5 o'clock position on the wheel and work clockwise around the perimeter. Use an "over and under" stitch where each stitch comes out from the underside of the leather and passes over the lip, and then crosses the gap and dives under the leather again. In this way, you'll get that fabulous herringbone look and the lips of the Wheelskin will lay flat, which is more comfortable for your fingers.
You can see the "over and under" stitch technique that gives you the professional factory-sewn look and keeps the seam nice and flat.
In the early stages of stitching, you'll need to pull a lot of thread through each hole. Lay it out carefully as you go, or it can get tangled. The thread is waxed to make it sticky, so you can pull each stitch nice and tight and it will stay that way. I usually do two or three stitches and then pull them tight. You'll get the technique down in about 10 stitches.
Work Around the Steering Wheel Spokes
When you reach a spoke in the steering wheel, simply loop the stitches through the outer lip of the wheelskin for the width of the spoke. Each stitch hole is about ½-inch from its neighbors. Then start your regular stitch pattern again. You can ignore the stitch holes on the lip that's passing behind the spoke. As you work, make sure to keep the seam straight and even on the inner diameter of the steering wheel's grip ring.
When you get to a wheel spoke, simply whipstitch (loop) around each stitch hole until you reach the end of the spoke, then resume your normal stitching pattern.
Finish Stitching and Enjoy Your “New” Steering Wheel
Eventually you will come back around to the place you started. Tie off your last stitch to your first stitch and use the needle to work the loose ends of the thread under the seam. You should have a couple feet of thread left over. I wrap the unused thread around the needle and save it in my toolbox for future leather repairs.
When you're done, the new cover looks great and the stitching looks like it was done professionally. It feels great in your hands, too.
And that's all there is to it! You can color-match most interiors with a standard color Wheelskin, or come up with a good contrasting color from their catalog. Your new steering wheel wrap will be nice leather, not molded rubber or plastic, and the dye used on Wheelskins holds up nicely over years of use.