Original steering wheel advice

[TGN]

My car unfortunately came with a rather shabby looking moto-lita 14* wheel.

I’m looking for a replacement original 16”. I don’t find the 14” at all heavy I’d just prefer a standard car.

There are usually several to choose from on eBay ranging from a 99p start, to £1500.
Can anyone give some pointers to what’s good and what’s not on eBay currently or an alternative place to source

I’ll need a boss too, what finish should they be some look excessively polished.

Should my April 62 car have a dark or light wood rim?

[mgcjag]

Hi Trevor....in addition put a post in our wanted section.......saying you after an original for you 62 car.....you never know what membets have stashed away.....Steve.......ps have you looked in the factory fit section for details viewtopic.php?p=35111#p35111

[baldyz1]

Hi

My experience of steering wheels was an interesting endeavour.

The early ones (possibly yours at 62) had a wider aluminium rim which was apparent on the inner side of the wheel. Personally I think these are more attractive than the later 4.2 wheel which had a thinner aluminium rim which was fully wrapped by wood.

My 1966 car came with an early wider rim so to finance the purchase of a later wheel I purchased replacement wood from a supplier on eBay and then followed some online guidance to join the two timber sides using a flexible resin. You have to clamp every inch or so to get a good solid result. I polished the wheel and boss and sanded the rim and left it raw for the new owner to choose the colour of stain.




In an ebay auction I achieved £600 which I then spent on a refurbished wheel from British Autowood in the USA for $730. The wheel arrived in about a week and with customs etc it came to £550. It was absolutely beautiful and an original.

So find out whether you need the wider rim or narrower and then maybe have a chat with British Autowood or don't be scared of purchasing a wheel even without the wood intact. But do make sure you purchase a wheel and boss that has not been separated as it is nigh on impossible to recreate the original rivets and they are a key feature.

If its the early wheel you need, which I think it is, then these will be anywhere from £600 to £1500 now I would think unless the person does not know the difference. I would suspect that you would need to purchase a used one from the USA for it to be a reasonable price.

Lets hope you have an original horn push as these are crazy expensive so if you find the whole ensemble as a package then worth snapping up.

The end of this story was that the bone headed restorer of my vehicle, fitted my gorgeous steering wheel before the car was completed and managed to snap it in two places when pushing the car using it for leverage. Never push a car using a wooden wheel the result is not good.

Thanks
Chris

[tinworm]

Hey Chris - the rivets are not a problem I have encountered - ebay will find some and you just need a rivet snap to dome the end over. Some practice would be needed to cut the rivet to the correct length (there is a formula for that actually) Something else on the wooden part of the rim - the early 3.8 items you mention are round in section where the later ones (which you correctly say do not have the alloy showing) have a 'thumb groove'. I prefer the feel of the first ones too - there is more to get hold of I find.

Barrie

[TGN]

I fortunately have the original horn push in good condition

[baldyz1]

Thats lucky.

The Bakelite material stands up to a high polish. I used compound and polish as you would with new paintwork and the original one I found on eBay came up with a beautiful lustre and the chocolate brown changed to its original slightly darker colour. These finishing touches are very gratifying.

[TGN]

I’m not even close to finishing touches yet. The brown tinge is more than at home with the current patina.

I may look for a later rim with the thumb groove for the moment.

Was the shade of wood dependant on the interior trim or were they selectable options?

[baldyz1]

I am sure the. Colours varied over time. The originality guide and xkedata will provide help here.

More info here;

viewtopic.php?t=6521&start=10

Thanks
Chris

[poofacio]

Richard Smith has the early wheels and at a very reasonable price.

[TGN]

Richard smith is a guitarist according to Google.

[Gfhug]

Search on here not google

[TGN]

I’m not sure 16 pages of results is anymore helpful if you don’t know what you don’t know.

I was a member of a group once where one of the rules was you couldn’t state RTFM. I didn’t understand it then, I’m beginning getting to now. Thanks.

I’ve seen Hutsons mentioned many times. Still no clue.

[rswaffie]

Richard Smith’s last known email address: rmjsmithltd@gmail.com

Hutson’s : https://www.hutsonmoco.co.uk/

[Series1 Stu]

Hi Trev

This forum is big on encouraging us all to find things out for ourselves by pointing us in the right direction. This is partly because repeating information takes up valuable space on the host server.

RM & J Smith Ltd is the company name. Richard does a lot to keep us supplied with otherwise unavailable parts. They are expensive but then all Jaguar parts are.

Their information is available with simple internet searches and a matter of public record so there can be no harm in quoting their number here.

They are based in Nantwich, Cheshire. Tel 01270 624554

Good luck

[mgcjag]

Hi Trevor.....rather than just a general google on a name add E type or jaguar....to the name....your then more likely to get results....I just searched here on the forum..Richard Smith contact details....its there in the first post....you just need to practice searching as we have a huge amount of content on the forum.....we also have a list of suppliers etc in the Knowledge base section......I would spend some time going through the whole Knowledge base it has a huge amount if usefull info.....Steve viewtopic.php?f=16&t=884