Wood Steering Wheel Repair

[mudflap]

The wood rimmed steering wheel on my CCKW was in pretty sad shape. One of the finger joints had severely deteriorated. Since this joint was on the lower left side of the wheel, I think it got extra duty whenever the wheel was used as an entry/egress assist handle. Many of the fingers were missing or broken off. There was glue in the joint from a previous failed repair. The other joint was also loose, and there were surface cracks at various places around the rim. One of these cracks was actually a fracture that nearly went all the way through the rim.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

I thought about trying to repair the original wood, but it just seemed too far gone, leaving a complete replacement of the wood rim as the only viable option. The original rim appeared to be steam bent white oak. The diameter is approx. 20”. The cross section of the rim is approx. 1” wide by 1.25” thick. The rim is made up of two pieces of wood, which are finger jointed together and riveted to the hub spokes in four places – one rivet every 90 degrees.

I do not consider myself a serious woodworking guru, so lacking both the expertise to bend wood of this size along with the tooling required to replicate the production finger joints; I chose an alternate construction technique. I decided to fabricate a replacement rim using laminated wood – i.e. multiple strips instead of solid stock.

I started with four strips of oak, approx. 0.250” x 1.25” x 6’ long. I soon discovered that oak is pretty stiff material, so in order to bend those strips around anything even approaching a 10” radius, they would need to be steamed first. After spending a few nights perusing the net for tips on how to steam bend wood, I was ready to give it a try.

First I had to build a steamer. There are many designs out there. Mine was just a couple of spare pieces of PVC, one placed coaxially inside of the other. The smaller diameter piece has 3 sets of holes, offset from the centerline of the tube and drilled perpendicular to the long axis. A 0.25” wooden dowel is inserted into each set of holes. The dowels provide two functions: 1) To hold the piece being steamed off of the bottom of the tube, and 2) help hold the inner tube in the center of the outer tube.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

A hole was drilled into the inner tube which was tapped for a half inch pipe fitting. A corresponding access hole was drilled in the outer tube. The smaller tube was slid inside the larger tube. The larger tube is the type used for drainage applications, and is perforated with predrilled holes. Once the two tubes were lined up, a hose shank was screwed into the inner tube via the access hole in the outer tube. Next, expanding foam insulation was sprayed into the predrilled holes. When cured, the foam adds structural rigidity to the assembly, and also insulates the inner tube (aka steam chamber) from the outside tube.

A PVC cap with a steam relief hole was added to one end (fitted loosely - NOT glued on). A small sheet metal baffle approx. 1” wide by 30” long was slid into the bottom of the tube, loosely covering the steam entry point. This is to help diffuse the incoming steam, keeping it from concentrating its effects on the section of wood directly above the hose shank. One end of a piece of flexible plastic tubing was connected to the hose shank on the tube. The other end was connected to the wife’s tea kettle – via a rubber stopper drilled to accept a plastic union. Add two quarts of water & my Coleman camping stove, and I was ready to start steam’n’.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

I needed a circular form to bend the wood around. I cut a couple of discs out of plywood and screwed them together. I picked a diameter slightly smaller (16”) than the actual diameter of the steering wheel to allow for spring back. I cut a 0.250” decreasing radius recess into the edge of the disc, bent a u-shaped piece of sheet metal and screwed it to the disc over the end of the cut. This allows the end of the wood to be quickly inserted under the sheet metal, and uniformly bent all the way around the form – in excess of 360 deg. I needed to mount the form to something solid with enough room to clear the 6’ length of the strip. By happy coincidence, the bed of a CCKW works perfectly for this task.

After the tea kettle was producing a vigorous supply of steam, I slid the first piece of oak into the steamer, loosley sealing the exposed end with a rag. Everything I read seemed to indicate that you want a good flow of steam past the wood, and do not want to end up with a pressure cooker. After 15 minutes, I pulled the wood from the steamer (wearing gloves), inserted the end under the metal loop on the form and slowly bent the wood around the form. Holy crap! To my utter amazement, it bent!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

I clamped it to the form and let it cool for about 20 minutes. I then repeated the process with the other three pieces. I then let the wood set for three or four days to normalize.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

While waiting for the wood to re-acclimate, I built the assembly form. This was made from several discs of plywood screwed and glued together. The OD of the form was 17 & 15/16”, which is the same as the ID of the steering wheel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

After waiting several days for the wood to stabilize, I started assembly. I wrapped the first ring onto the form, and cut it to length. Using a marine grade epoxy, I glued and clamped the butt joint of the first ring. This allowed the ends of the ring to be fit accurately and squarely on the form. Wax paper was put on the form first, to keep any extra epoxy from bonding the ring to the form.

The epoxy I used has a fairly long cure time, so I waited until the next day to attach the second ring. After sanding the butt joint smooth, I trimmed and fitted the second ring. I coated both the OD of the first ring and the ID of the second ring with the epoxy, then clamped the second ring into place using every clamp I could scrounge. It does not take a lot of pressure, but it does help to have even pressure all around the circumference in order to get a consistent glue line.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

After the epoxy cured, the ring was removed from the fixture, the excess epoxy was sanded off, and the ring outer surface was checked with a square to verify that it was square and true. Some of the wood rings had cupped slightly leaving a depression or high spot in the middle of the strip. These were sanded out using 60 grit sand paper and a sanding block. The process was repeated the next two nights with the third and fourth rings. Once the epoxy holding the fourth ring had cured, the laminated assembly was removed from the form. The excess epoxy was sanded off, and the entire assembly was squared up using a body file and a belt sander.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

Next, the square edges of the ring were rounded over to a radius of 0.500” using a round over bit and a router. A router table actually works best for this. I did not have a router table, but I did have a router and I had a table. I bought an adapter from a local woodworking store, cut a hole in the table and viola, I had a router table.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

The production steering wheel has finger groves on the back surface. These were rough cut using a rasp and a small homemade guide to help keep the cuts uniform. Finish sanding followed – starting with 80 grit sand paper and progressively working up to 220.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

The four rivets were drilled out of the old wheel hub. The hub was cleaned and wire-brushed to remove any loose paint and rust. The hub was laid onto the new rim, and the spoke locations were transferred using a pencil.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

A router with a 1.00” diameter bit was used to cut the recesses for the four spokes. A small fixture made from plywood and scrap trim helped line up the router for the cut. A wood chisel was also used to cut a small clearance notch for each spoke end.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing


The rim was attached to the hub by applying epoxy to the rim- to- spoke interface. Additional epoxy was also used to fill any gaps between the end of the spoke and the recesses in wood rim. Once the epoxy had cured, a 0.250” hole was drilled through the rim at the end of each spoke using the existing spoke hole as a guide.

Surfing the web again, (how did we ever fix stuff before the internet?) I found some 0.250” truss head solid steel rivets. The truss head profile is very, very close to the production rivets. Since the new rivet heads are made to engage a flat surface, they needed to be preformed in order to fit the rounded cross section of the wooden rim. To preform the rivet head, I drilled a hole cross-wise through piece of iron pipe, inserted the rivet, and hammered the rivet head to fit using a plastic hammer. The rivets I purchased were a little long (1.500”) so I put them in the holes that I drilled in the wheel, marked them about 0.040” or 0.050” past the surface of the spoke, and cut them to length.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

Next came the part I had been losing sleep over for countless nights – how to drive the solid rivets. Having never worked with this kind of rivet before, I performed hours and hours of internet searches (thanks again, Al Gore). I read about rivets, riveting, bucking rivets, pneumatic riveters, Rosie the Riveter, you name it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

After all that, the actual process turned out to be fairly anti-climactic. I coated the rivets with epoxy, put them in the holes and then laid the rim face down with the rivet head in contact with a piece of aluminum that was sitting on a heavy piece of steel. Finally, I just peened over the rivet ends using a simple ball peen hammer. For some of the close work near the edges, I used a hammer and punch. The aluminum worked perfectly for “bucking” the rivets, and kept the rivet heads from becoming deformed. After a little touch-up with a Dremel, the rivets looked like the factory had just installed them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

After a little finish sanding, some primer, a little more sanding, and some OD paint (I picked a semi-gloss to help cut down on finger prints), the wheel looks like brand new - a very close facsimile to the original.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZqhJ ... sp=sharing

I did not expect the first major project on my CCKW to be an exercise in woodworking. As I said, I am no woodworker but I believe that anyone with a little woodworking experience, along with an ample supply of plywood (and patience) to build the fixtures can achieve similar results. One thing for certain, the oak/epoxy lamination is amazingly strong – much stronger than the original. You can pull on it all day and feel virtually no deflection. The original rim was on the truck for nearly 70 years. If I can get 50 or 60 years out of this one I will be more than happy.

Best Regards

[retro-roco]

Bookmarked... this is an absolutely fantastic tutorial!

[Bill_Wolf]

Outstanding post and spectacular work.

Thank you for taking the time to put this up.

Bill

[25 pounder]

Amazing woodworking skills ! Second hand steering wheels are up to 150- 175 € a piece , if you'll find them on European markets . It defenitely is a challenge to make your own !

[Brad]

Im a carpenter for a living and repsect the details u pictured concerning the wheel assembly. Well done