Hi Larry and others--
Well this morning I'm about ⅔ of the way through the steering wheel wrap project.
I made a huge mistake yesterday, only because I never saw the suggestion. REMOVE THE STEERING WHEEL. I would not suggest even trying to lace a leather or other wrap around a wheel in situ; never, ever. Not again. Don't make this mistake.
Even if you did yours when installed, well more power to you; it still would be far easier outside the car. In my case the exceedingly long threads--two of them with two needles, kept getting tangled; I was doing what was called "the baseball stitch". In addition during the threading process they consistently found every possible place in the cockpit to get caught on. It was exasperating. I was contorting to see the pre-punched holes from the backside. It was simultaneously frustrating and maddening. Progress was a snail's pace. For those with a biblical bent, there was much "wailing and gnashing of teeth."
Then I decided to remove the steering wheel. I popped the bonnet/hood; in one minute I removed the ground from the battery. In 10 seconds I popped the horn pad off. Using a 13MM socket on a short extension I removed the five nuts in about 2 minutes. Using a Phillips, I removed the horn wires. In less than five very easy minutes, the steering wheel was on my kitchen island in an expansive brightly lit workspace. I made more progress over the next 40 minutes than I did in the prior two hours.
"Tight is right" they all say on the lacing. The challenge is as you pull the threads to tighten, the leather is pulling back. So, I decided that with each inch of progress on the circumference of the wheel, I needed to "hold the tightness" of the lacing. Tie wraps were perfect for that. Lace an inch or so, pull tight, install a tie wrap to hold it in place. One thing I did NOT do, but will for the next time, is use miniature bar clamps on the unlaced portions to hold the leather in position such that the seam will not be shifting. As you progress the leather will want to shift and twist and turn, and it helps to kind of hold it in position. Of course, once its complete all the tie wraps will be cut off and I'll do my best to uniformly twist any uneven seams into position...or try again with new thread sometime.
The observant will note the difference between Lurtch's leather and mine. While he didn't say what brand wrap he has, his edges are rolled and finished and mine are just cut. My wrap was all of $17 on Amazon; see the prior post. While the leather seems to be of good enough quality, it's not finished nearly as well as a more costly wrap on the edges.
My goal is to finish this today, and re-install. Big car show this weekend (Pinehurst) and I need to do other things on my car. If I don't like this wrap, I can alway try again...better to experiment with this less costly version and if I try a better one I've got my own guidelines for a better job.
