MFSW retrim

... with a difference

Just over 18 months ago I had my steering wheel refurbed by Jack @ Royals - a brilliant job. However, due to the previous owner being a bit too fond of the bling, the steering wheel trims also needed a bit of TLC. On the Alpina's, the trims are covered in leather, but unfortunately Jack didn't have a thin enough leather to use, so I had to settle for a strip and respray (or rather, my trims did - i'm not that "Essex" :wink: )

Jump forward to last weekend, and I had finally got around to sourcing some suitable leather - yes, I know that's almost qualifying for srhutch levels of procrastination - and started the process. Having been in Japan I sourced some skiving knives (used for thinning leather), bought the leather (0.7mm thick) from a US stockist, and set about the process of recovering the trims:

The kit - some leather, skiving knives, a scalpel and contact adhesive:



The before view (not too bad, but trims are a bit plasticky looking):



The after views:





And yes, I also retrimmed the backs, not just the faces. Apologies, but i became engrossed in getting the trimming completed, and forgot to take pictures during the process - there are a number of leather skiving videos out there that show the method, but its basically shaving the backing off the leather to thin the edges. The scalpel was used to trim, rather than using scissors, to get better edges, and also to remove any excess after glueing.

Very happy with the results - although I am now looking at attempting to get the leather rhombus design on the bottom spoke, although that will probably take another 18 months to complete

Edited: to put the right thickness in

looks good!

Cheeky bugger :lol:

Mind you you might have done me a favour. I need to thin down some leather for the door pulls. Does it matter the leather is only a couple off mm already?

Also given me another idea, but might take a year or so.

the only issue with the thickness I found is that stretching is easier with thinner skins so the leather doesn't crease over the shapes (you need to warm the leather slightly to achieve the stretch), and the fold overs need to be a lot thinner that the rest, otherwise the part won't fit together.

Just in case you need any, the leather I sourced was from here

I have seen videos of people using a dremel to sand the leather backing down, but haven't tried that yet...

Great idea and a superb result. Suspect you are being a bit modest with the amount of skill involved here!

markeg said:

the only issue with the thickness I found is that stretching is easier with thinner skins so the leather doesn't crease over the shapes (you need to warm the leather slightly to achieve the stretch), and the fold overs need to be a lot thinner that the rest, otherwise the part won't fit together.

Just in case you need any, the leather I sourced was from here

I have seen videos of people using a dremel to sand the leather backing down, but haven't tried that yet...

Click to expand...

I have the leather sorted, CFL :wink:

It's 1.5mm thick so I might have a practice with the sample I've got before splashing out on half a cow.

Just looked at you link. Thought 7mm was a bit thick, you meant .7mm

srhutch said:

.Just looked at you link. Thought 7mm was a bit thick, you meant .7mm

Click to expand...

yeah, 7mm might be a bit thick :lol:

And cheers, Jingle & MrPT

Looks a lot tidier but should you not have the red leather cut-outs on the base leg of the wheel for an Alpina ?

Any plans to reinstate them ?

Yep, I may do that eventually. Problem was that the previous owner had taken chunks out of the leather in each of the trims; one of the side pieces was the worst as the leather was completely ripped, and no amount of smart repairs worked. The bottom spoke had one rip and two scrapes, right through the leather. Again smart repairs just didn't work.

As per the OP, eventually I plan on trying the rhombus design - I just need to practice on a couple of pieces first until I'm happy with the quality. I also kept the originals as a template to help with any sizings