It seems like lots of guys building customs want a '59-'60 Olds wheel for their heap. It's just one of those things, you know, like DeSoto teeth in a Merc. I picked up a '60 Olds wheel several years ago&—it came with a '60 Olds bolted to it. When it came time to start redoing the interior, I decided to restore the old cracked wheel instead of going with an aftermarket unit. The '59-'60 wheel is unique in that it's about a foot deep from the mounting flange to the wheel rim; that means the column is shorter than typical, so to put an aftermarket wheel in my Olds, I was looking at either getting a longer column or cobbling a scary-looking adapter/extension. No, thanks. It seemed much easier to restore the wheel I had.
I ordered a steering wheel restoration kit from POR-15 and got down to brass tacks. Following the instructions provided in the kit, I had all of the cracks in my wheel filled, sanded, and the entire wheel in primer inside of two full days&—including the time required to let the putty and primer kick. The polyester primer/sealer provided in the kit is catalyzed, and I used the entire pint on my wheel. Once it kicked off, I wet-sanded the wheel and headed over to Scott Guildner's shop. I enlisted Guildner to shoot my wheel since I am the run king. He loaded up his detail gun and resprayed it with automotive-finish primer/sealer that was compatible with the paint system I had chosen. Once that was dry, Guildner applied the oh-so-nice light metallic blue that I had selected from his DuPont color book. The paint we used was the ChromaBase system, which is a two-stage system that requires a clearcoat to protect the vulnerable basecoat. Guildner applied the base and clear according to manufacturer's specs. The POR-15 primer sealer is impervious to automotive-finish chemistry, so you can use whatever paint system you like.
The kit retails for $69.95 and, considering the cost of a new wheel or having someone do it for you, is worth every penny. Now to drag that steering column out and get to sanding.
