1965 Steering Wheels - Wood, Bakelite, Leather?

[9er]

No they are not hard to get, or valuable Merv, however you are in luck, I am willing to take it off your hands

[VA_alfa]

Okay, so the earliest 911's have wood rimmed steering wheels and I understand now that the hockey puck horn button was standard but most cars were uprated with the butterfly horn button. When was the standard issue wood rimmed wheel replaced? was it the similarly looking leather wrapped wheel in about 1969?

[rstrahota]

I own 302396.
It has a wood wheel with a steel frame, not aluminum.
I might have a concours condition wheel and horn button for sale if you need it.
Ds

[Jay Laifman]

The early 1965 wheels were made from aluminum, and you could see this edge on the inside of the rim all the way around the aluminum was exposed. Some point in 1965 they went to the steel rim wheel and then the metal was not exposed on the side of the rim all the way around.

I do not know the cutoff for the changeover, sorry.

Note that there is a stamping on the hub of the wheel, but this number (as far as I have seen) has no relation to a date stamp, I've seen 2 digit numbers and 4 digit numbers, and couldn't make sense of them.

Attached is a picture of the early aluminum based rim with the exposed aluminum around the inside of the wood rim.

regards,
Eric

Is it possible that there is a third version? I have one on my 911 and one on my '67 912. I purchased the one for my 911 probably about 20 year ago from a guy who restored 356 wheels in Florida. He had this one from a 911 that was not his main market and I grabbed it for a great price. The 912 one came on the car, and I have no reason to doubt it is not original - but I have no proof.

Admittedly, they have both worn at the edges of the metal near the wood, where my hand tends to rest. On the 911 one, it is a steel color, as I would expect. On the 912 one, it is a brass color, not gray or silver at all. Otherwise, they do appear identical. What is with the brass color then, if there is only steel and aluminum?

I will say that my son suggested that somehow wood stain got on the metal before the black went over it. But, I would think I'd wear through the stain too. And looks more deep to me than a surface stain.

Oh, and anyone know who that Florida guy was?

[Toronto66_911]

Photo from my #302982 Butterfly and wood with leather horn buttonAttachment 0

[kouwenhoven]

The aluminum/wood wheels are quite hard to get, they were produced only for '64 and early '65 cars (although I have seen them on some '67S cars too) and they were fragile. When you pull them too hard, they break and also a minor accident meant that it broke easily. I have seen alu wheels for sale for 4000 euros at Essen, but that was a guy that had had terrible prices for all his wheels. I think 2000-2500 dollar is an ok price for one and steel wood wheels can be bought for around 1200. The weight difference between alu/wood and steel/wood however is spectacular, I believe over 1 kilo, maybe an expert can fill in the exact amount...

Erik