Classic 9 self-install leather for 40cm wheel

[mfitton]

Arne did your wheel have any kind of original padding underneath before you started, or was it just the hard shiny plastic?

[Arne]

No padding, Mike. Just hard plastic. So I recovered it the same way. The Classic 9 kit might stretch enough to accommodate some very thin padding, but probably not much.

[frederik]

Arne, your end result looks fabulous and thanks for taking the time for the detailed write-up. I’m sure it will be useful to many of us here!

[mfitton]

No padding, Mike. Just hard plastic. So I recovered it the same way. The Classic 9 kit might stretch enough to accommodate some very thin padding, but probably not much.

I was thinking that the Classic 9 kit was for original wheels that had a leather cover, those wheels have a very thin hard foam padding underneath maybe why yours was bulky at the spokes.

[Arne]

I was thinking that the Classic 9 kit was for original wheels that had a leather cover, those wheels have a very thin hard foam padding underneath maybe why yours was bulky at the spokes.

Are you sure that all of them had the thin hard foam, Mike? All indications are that my wheel was factory leather. Early '72 w/Appearance Group, which was said to include the leather wheel in '72. The wheel has the right part number, too - 901 347 081 10. The remains of the leather pictured above looked factory to me, snug fit and what remained of the stitching looked correct. But there was no sign of any foam of any kind under the leather. I guess it could have been smashed paper-thin and fused to the underside of the leather, but I don't recall anything like that.

[mfitton]

I was thinking maybe some kind of felt was underneath the factory leather wheels, maybe someone else can chime in. I still have my original 11/70 wheel for my '71 Targa but I can't tell if anything is underneath.

[Arne]

This picture from an ad on Samba seems to show nothing under the leather. Which is how I remember mine.

Of course, I stripped the leather off of mine over a year ago. Memory not always accurate over that period...

[friendlyfred]

Great post Arne,
Without your post I would've put off recovering my new 911 wheel indeterminately.
I am just now calling to order the kit.
At present I am in the process of carefully removing the leather covering from my 805.10 wheel. I does appear to have a thin coating of soft material under the leather but I'll know in a few hours when it has been fully "skinned"!
Thanks again for your carefully written instructions.
Fred

[mfitton]

This picture from an ad on Samba seems to show nothing under the leather. Which is how I remember mine.

Of course, I stripped the leather off of mine over a year ago. Memory not always accurate over that period...

Arne, I think all the factory wrapped leather wheels had a rubber molding under the leather, so a little thicker than a stock plastic wheel. Check this out, post #143. https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...E-TRUTH/page15

[JT912]

My '68 had a rubber-rimmed wheel under the leather wrap.