Hi all, just thought I'd show off my latest little experiment.
Having spotted some pictures of the early Civic "RS" stlye steering wheel I
wanted to have a go at making a replica.
Basically the wheel was the same as the standard early Civic 1200 2/3 door 2-
spoke wheel but with a wood rim instead of moulded black plastic. Later Civic
1500 & 4/5door and wagon got a fractionally larger 3-spoke version
of this wheel and were also occasionally offered with wood versions but obviously these wheels are all fairly rare & valued.
So I figured it couldn't be too hard to paint up the thin, hard plastic handgrip with a wooden effect. Thousands of Alfa prove it can be done convincingly, and doing it myself would let me choose the colour to match its enviroment better.
I dis-assembled, cleaned and sanded the wheel before filling a number of
moulding holes on the back side of the rim with epoxy and primed with a can of
plastic primer followed by gold base coat. Sitting the wheel on a screwdriver
held in a vice so it could be spun easily I mixed up a bit of, gold, black, red
and clear with extra thinners in a paint can lid & carefully brushed it on with
a thin brush while turning the wheel. The paint solids sinking in the thinners
for a graduated grain tone (take care not to get runs!). This first try was
still too gold though so glowed in diffuse light so I backed it off with another
thin mix with beige primer, gold, black & white and clear run around it,
followed by another go with the darker gold/black/red "grain" (I didn't have any
dark brown paint).
I sanded the steel spokes down, taking care only to sand in one direction for a
"brushed steel" finish darker than silver paint or alloy but more interesting
than Honda's dark grey paint.
This was followed by some clear to seal it away before a friend offered to give
it a clear coat of two-pack urethane paint so I sanded it down between coats to
smooth things off before it got another coat. Also clearing the spokes to stop
them rusting, though since adhesion isn't great without a primer take care not
to pull of the paint with masking tape!
Unfortunately the sanding between clearcoats introduced a milky effect and I
wanted to lightly sand the surface afterwards for a matt finish but this also
left it white so I had to polish it back up again. Perhaps an orange tinted
clearcoat (like shellac) might have been an advantage.
Looking at a few proper wood wheels like my S600 & dad's Lancia, and Alfa's
fakes, perhaps very thin, very short "grains" might be more accurate & more
contrast between base & grain colours than I applied might have been a good idea
under a tinted clearcoat, but I'm happy with the result as a first try.
Certainly better than the complete nonsense of certain huge chunky "burr-walnut"
modern "wood" trimmed wheels.
I also tried to remove the little central "H" for painting but unfortunately
cracked it without getting anywhere, before painting the center red for
interest. Though it probably should have been orange to match Honda's Gauge
needles & "red"line graphics.
I hadn't intended to use the wheel on the Accord since wooden fashions were
obviously considered passe & overly retro for it with its chunkier, modern "soft
feel" wheel a highlight against much of its competition, but I couldn't resist
trying it out...
It does suit my cars beige interior well with its lighter colour & relatively
delicate steel spokes less obtrusive & visually obstructive than the original
Black wheel... If I can get used to such a skinny hard wheel, (but a chunky wood
wheel always looks sooooo wrong).
& I'm still not sure whether I'd be game for an 'LX' style colour matched
beige/brown Accord wheel.
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