Hope to get some tips on how to continue the stock restoration of my 1941 Oldsmobile steering wheel. It has countless extremely thin hairline cracks. They are too close to each other and it is not possible to enlarge each of them in a V-shape to add epoxy (which is the usual method of restoring larger cracks) without removing most of the ivory material. Since each line seems very superficial I decided to sand the wheel and to my surprise most of hairline cracks went away. However, there are a few that I can feel with a fingernail and there are still many that although visible, will not even be caught by a fingernail. I would like some opinions how to continue the restoration work.


First photo shows the hairline cracks at the worst spot of the steering wheel, before sanding






The following photo shows same area after hand sanding. I tried 320 grit but moved to 180 which worked better at this state




Third photo: black marker showing the few lines that I can feel with fingernail



My goal is a stock restoration for a very nice stock driver. No concourse goals.

Which one of these options do you think will be best to recover the smooth stock appearance? Or any other suggestions?

1. Continue sanding until all lines disappear. (a lot of sanding indeed, I am sore after more than 4 hours of sanding today) and I can not tell if there is deep structural damage after 80 years. I am afraid may be making the wheel too thin and distort the shape

2. Apply a smear of PC-7 now and press by hand trying to get into the fine lines and then sand the whole thing again, prime and color paint (I suspect the epoxy will not penetrate into the tiny lines and effort wasted)

3. Sand more until lines that can not be felt with fingernail until they disappear and cut a V on all the ones caught by fingernail, fill with epoxy, prime, paint.

I enjoy doing the work myself. Wheel is in too good shape to spend money recasting (heard $700 to $1K)

Hope to hear some suggestions from members with more experience, thank you very much. Manuel

 

Nothing short of recasting it, will hold up in the long run. If you don't cut out an entire crack, just fill over it, it will return. Sooner rather than later.

 

Your wheel looks a lot better than most at this stage. I have taken Superglue and mixed it with a pinch of styrofoam from a Dixie cup and worked it into the larger hairline cracks as a filler-glue, build it up slightly above the surface, work fast, and sand when it is dry. On the very fine cracks, just use the Superglue straight from the tube if you can get any in to the crack at all. On larger cracks I use PC 11 (it's white) Then prime with a filler-primer and coat with a automotive top coat with a hardener added. Rattle can finishes do soften for me with time, I think I have paint remover in my sweaty hands, so I use a Prevail sprayer and automotive paint as a finish coat. In time some of the cracks may show up, but you should get many years of driveing fun out of your job before you do it again... Tedd

 

Yes, it does, and after reading your comment I decided not to experiment in an attempt to make the crack lines go away and therefore today I decided to keep sanding up to 2500 grit and then buffed it with a plastic polish and the result is excellent. Only a few lines remain, the color is more vivid and the wheel remains an intact original. Photos show how much it improved.









I also noticed something unexpected shown in photo below. The buffer unfortunately polished too much on a spoke and you can see the ivory color is fading a bit.and revealing a transparent plastic underneath the color. I thought the ivory casting was a uniform color but it appears it is transparent and color is added to the outer surface only. I am so glad I did not continue sanding with any coarse grit or I would have removed the color and permanently damage the original part..