How to soften leather on steering wheel? And then to restitch it.

[Jay Laifman]

Anyone have any good tips on how to soften the leather wrap on our steering wheels?

Much of the threads on my stock 1973 911 steering wheel have broken. I took of the wheel probably 20 years ago now, and installed an earlier factory wood one. Now that I'm also driving my early 912 with the wood wheel, I feel like I'd like to put the leather one back on the 911.

So, I want to restitch it. However, I'm concerned that if I just go and restitch it, the leather may have hardened over the years and rip. That's why I'm asking about softening the leather on the steering wheel.

Any good tips on the restitching itself would of course also be welcome.

Jay

[Chuck Miller]

Jay,

I'd use Neatsfoot oil.... let it soak in, and reapply....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neatsfoot_oil
http://www.amazon.com/Fiebing-Prime-.../dp/B000BQYHL6

Hope this helps,
Chuck

[RSTarga]

73s had vinyl on the wheel. Unless you got an option or maybe European delivery of which some had leather.

[ptrsbtrs]

I have read about a product sold at Cabella's sporting goods called "Oben auf? (sp?)
purportedly really penetrates the dried out leather to the point it can be stretched and re-sown.
Supposedly works well but takes a while.
Good Luck!
Peter

[ptrsbtrs]

Oops, forgot to add....
Curved Upholstery needles is what you want to buy for this job, your fingers will thank you.

[Jay Laifman]

73s had vinyl on the wheel. Unless you got an option or maybe European delivery of which some had leather.

Very interesting. Well, I can attest that my original factory invoice says "Leatherette Cov. Steering Wheel." However, someone also wrote in by hand on the invoice "Leather interior" - and the seats are leather with the D leather headrest. The wheel sure seems like leather. It has shrunk where the threads broke, and the back side of the cover looks kind of like rough leather. There is no weave backing that I would normally expect on vinyl. I would not expect vinyl to shrink this way. Any other ways to tell?

I guess I can put some of the leather softeners on it and see if they help. Can't hurt if it's actually vinyl.

[Jay Laifman]

Oh, I actually have Obenauf's for my xc ski boots. As I recall, it was supposed to be the best - but for protecting. I'll have to see if they have another product for softening.

Thanks all.

[M_deJong]

There is a product called Leatherique that is supposed to do this... I used it in a BMW interior with fairly good results.

[HarryD]

I saturated my 1973 steering wheel cover with Lexol, wrapped it with saran wrap, and waited a week. Repeated twice. Leather swelled up and looked like new when done.

[rdelmendo]

For the stitching, I used #5 embroidery thread pulled through beeswax several times. Use the curved needles suggested previously and watch several YouTube videos on cross-stitch and baseball stitching. It's time consuming but is pretty low impact on the technical scale.