Steering Wheel Trim Cracking

I have a three spoke wheel with wood trim that has cracked so bad it's started to come off on the top piece. I wanted to try replace all 3 trim sections with some kind of enamel finish like the original only more robust. But I couldn't come up with a reasonable solution. So I bought this kit off amazon instead: AULLY PARK Universal Car Steering Wheel Cover Genuine Leather Stitch On Wrap (Size M-, Gray) Amazon Amazon I got it in black. My car is mostly savannah beige but I'm planning on swapping in some black seats as they are the easiest to come by and mine are pretty beat up (actually have a lead on some nice 997 seats but that's a topic for another thread). I figured this would match well. The kit is meant to wrap the whole wheel but with the wider sections I didn't think that would look good. So I cut a segment the length of the trim piece. I broke all the trim off with a pliers. Sanded and cleaned up a bit and then went to town with a cross stitch. Took about 2 hours. I'm happy with the result. The biggest concern is the transition from the original leather. I'm not sure if I could seal that point with something to help prevent wear there and make it a bit smoother. Open to tips. The feel of the transition is less than the original one as I show in the pics. If it holds up well I'll go ahead and do the other two sections. If it doesn't, I'm only out $13 and a couple hours.

THats a really nice job! Mine is carbon and it is cracked but nowhere near as bad as yours. I just re dyed the leather and it came out pretty nice! You might want to try redying the leather on those seats. You might be happy with the outcome! Whoever ordered your car new should of got the wood on the doors also! I mean the center console rear console side vents but not the doors. I don't understand why. how some people pick and choose these things. BUT I have the door parts if you are ever interested. I'm actually selling the entire dark burlwood interior so I might not want to break it up unless I can't sell the whole thing as one.

Is that wood trim or is the core of the wheel actually made from wood?

The wood on the top of the wheel is the core. You can see the trim on the two bottom segments. They only have hairline cracks so I wasn't in a rush to replace them yet. I didn't take pictures of the top before I cracked all the pieces off, but it was pretty bad.

Nice work with the stitching. IMO you should try rolling the ends under, where they meet the old leather, and it will look neater.

And plus 1 on re-dyeing the seats!

Nice work. For the wood trim, is it just the clear coat that cracks or is it the underlying wood? It seem like it's mostly the coating from what I've seen, but I'm not positive about that. If it's just the coating, it seems like it would be possible to sand the coating off down to the wood and then spray it in clear coat or poly (that would probably be more durable than the original factory finish). For the seats, that "shininess" is accumulated dirt even though the seats look relatively clean. Check out this "clean seats were filthy" thread -> https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...re-filthy.html . The difference before and after steam is nothing less than amazing. I would definitely steam clean the seats first (following the exact instructions in the thread above) to see what you are dealing with. You can order color match Savannah Beige dye from several sources -- that dye won't match at all with the shiny film on the seats, but it will match perfectly after you have removed the film with steam. After the steam, you can far more accurately determine whether the seats can have imperfections touched up or whether a full re-dye is needed.

Yeah I agree. I wasn't exactly sure how to pull that off. Maybe roll a small bit, press it with something, and glue it to itself. I felt like I would have a rough time getting that perfect. I had to trim the ends as I did it to make it exact. I could use this one as a template tho. The other thing was the thickness increase. I think I'd need to remove some wood diameter from the steering wheel to prevent a large bump between the rolled new end and the old leather end. And about the seats - the drivers at least is toast. Two worn through holes and two large breaks at the seams. Leather is stiff on them too. Looking at picking up this black set. Think a re dye can fix the worn drivers bolster? My other option is a 997.2 set that will take some rewiring. But it's further away and bit more of a hassle.

Quotes source post: 15783874

I'm probably going to get the lingo wrong, but you can also use skiving to shave a taper into the end of the leather. I messed around with this on a shift boot - it is easier said than done, at least without the special tools - I did it with a razor blade.

Quotes source post: 15784597

Unless you really like the contrasting black, Savanna Beige is a very popular color and a nice set will become available if you wait. How is the passenger seat? Dirt, shininess, and stiffness can be completely fixed with steam followed by a penetrating oil like Surflex or Leatherique. Split seams and holes can't easily be fixed, so agree the driver side is toast, but if the passenger seat is still intact, it can probably be restored to like new condition -- then so you'd only need to replace one seat instead of both. EDIT: It might be interesting to find out if the cushion/upholstered portions of the seats are the same on both sides so that they could be transferred from a passenger seat to your existing driver side frame. It's easy to find passenger seats in perfect condition, less so for driver's side.