73? Accessory thing steering wheel help

[suntour]

I just discovered that my Thing accessory steering wheel (the three spokes one) has cracked. The fake wood/plastic grip part has cracked and looks like it is going crumble apart if I don?t fix it. Any ideas on how to fix this? Has anyone restored one?

[Bob Ingman]

can you use a toothpick to feed epoxy into the crack and a C-clamp to set it into place? If so sand or file (from an unseen spot) enough of the wheel of get some of the powder it`s made of. Add that to the epoxy to match up in color. Thats how I do it.

[suntour]

Thanks Mr. Ingman that is a great idea. However I can?t figure out what you mean by the C-clamp. I think there is a metal core that prevents it from being squished. I guess I could also add some colorant to the epoxy to match it to the original color and then get my wife to paint (faux) the grain stuff to match.?.?.. I wonder how long that would last for?

Anyway, here is a picture of the steering wheel and its crack. This is the accessory steering wheel isn?t it? I have never seen another one, except a picture in some book about Kubelwagens and Things. Oh yeah, I have not taken the leather cover off to see it there is more damage, I just wore through this one and noticed the crack.

[Bob Ingman]

Suntour I said C-clamp because I immagined the crack running in the other direction. You can fill that with anything if you intend to recover the leather outer. Send it to a good Mexican upholstery shop like Gabes in Corona and they will restore it to new condition. Thanks for sending the photos. As they say one pic is worth a thousand words. Bob Ingman