Wheelskins (Steering wheel cover)

I like the look of the factory wheel with the silver spokes exposed (not covered in leather) Is there anyway you can get that look with aftermarket leather?

 

You could always order a factory wheel from Sigma for $350!

After seeing that photo I've realized I don't want the Wheelskins look (and I can't afford $350 either). If anyone in the U.S. wants a plain black one (new in box) for $35 shipped Priority Mail PM me.

 

Anyone know if that would work with the airbags?

 

I know many of you don't like the leather wheel wrap. I am one of those who can't drive without it. So attached is my poor man's leather steering wheel. My workmanship is bad, I know.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a factory replacement for the existing wheel so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I think yours looks fine. And your workmanship is fine too.

I think the Gen III steering wheel presents a fitment issue that the Gen II and many other cars do not have, namely the multi-faced vertical spokes on the bottom.

Given the Gen III steering wheel and the different Wheelskins I've seen on it, I'm convinced that the best Wheelskins for it has to be solid colored and smooth (non-perforated).

With the solid colored and smooth Wheelskins, there's only one seam at the six o'clock position which means that the feel of that seam is unlikely to ever bother anyone; plus the overall look is smoother and tighter looking because there's only one seam and you don't get the hard to fit spoke areas highlighted by contrasting colors. Also, with one smooth solid color, the Wheelskins will look most like OEM, and even more so if you get black.

Tip #1: I don't know if it's been mentioned in this thread, but one way to get a smoother fit on the spokes is to not tighten the "dummy" stitches on the spokes very much. Once you get past the spokes' dummy stitches, you can resume tightening the real stitches as much as you can.

Tip #2: I think that wearing a glove while you tighten stitches is the best way to get tight stitches. With a glove (I use those cheap cotten work or moving gloves with those little rubbery nubbies on the palms and fingers), you won't have the thread cutting into your hand while you pull, and you'll be able to use all your might to tighten stitches. One PriusChatter suggested using a crochet hook, but I can't see a crochet hook tightening as well as a gloved hand pulling hard. Other PriusChatters suggested using needle nose pliers to pull the thread; but again, I can't see pliers pulling as hard as a gloved hand. Also, using needle nose pliers might damage or cut the thread with either the finer teeth or the finer edges that needle nose pliers frequently have.

 

This may sound like a bad idea, but what about applying a tennis/badminton overgrip to the upper portion of the wheel? For example, this.

 

I know this is an old post, but FYI - The Japanese site (SIGMA) no longer sells the leather steering wheel to US consumers.

Also, has there been any improvement to the Wheelskins install to make it look better then most pictures I'm seeing?

 

I installed Wheelskins on my 2009 last week. The
look and feel of the Wheelskins is highly dependent on
the patience and skill of the installer. You have to be
prepared to take the time to do it right. "Doing it right"
includes: having the skin centered correctly on the
wheel; making sure all the stitches are TIGHT; and
stitching around the spokes correctly. These things
sound simple, but only after you do it yourself do you
realize it's not as easy as it looks.

My install took more than two hours, and my hands
were blistered and sore for a couple of days afterwards.
[The instructions recommend you wear gloves...that
is really good advice!]

Still, I hate the rough, cheap-plastic feel of Toyota's
OEM steering wheel; the Wheelskins leather feels
vastly better and enhances every minute of the
Prius driving experience.

 

Does anyone know if the we can install the leather wrap steering wheel from the Prius iV or V into a Prius II?? Also anyone have the part number???

Thanks,

Chan

 

Sigma sells wheels for $350 - it's a replacement. If you find one 'used' from a V, it is not a hard retrofit.

 

Again, SIGMA isn't selling the wheel to US Consumers anymore per their website as well as an email response from them. Apparently there were airbag compatibility issues.

 

Sorry - Modelista maybe??? Ebay search steering prius 10... $399

 

Re: Wheelskins (Steering wheel cover)...self critique of installation

Here are some pictures of my install, with self-critique
so that others can learn from my mistakes. I installed
two tone perforated. The two sides panels were black.
The top/bottom panels were Wheelskins' "gray" color,
which I was hoping would match up with my gray
interior, and to my eye it seems like a good match.

Before I started, I warmed the leather on my sun-lit
dash for 30 minutes.

I started the installation at the "5 o'clock" position
of the steering wheel. I centered the bottom panel
of leather against the bottom arc of the steering
wheel. The thought was that the terminating knot
would be hidden from view in the bottom panel. I
also assumed that by centering the bottom panel,
that this would make the top panel automatically
center-aligned, which turns out not be be true
(I'll discuss this in more detail later). The overall
installation improved as I went around the wheel
in clockwise fashion, as you will see.

I'll give further commentary with the photos below.

Photo 1: completed installation...actually looks
not bad. Total installation time was 2.5 hours.

Photo 2: the first spoke I encountered...I put in
dummy stitches as the instructions suggested.
However, I was not sure how taut to pull these
stitches, nor did I have my "tautness technique"
down by then, so the dummy stitches turned out
to be somewhat relaxed. This spoke came out
"OK"...the leather was generally tight around the
spoke and there is only a small amount of
wrinkling above the spoke.

Photo 3: the second spoke...this was my worse
looking spoke. I managed to pull the stitches
slightly tighter, but whole thing came out wrinkled
and there was a bit of a gap between the leather
and the spoke itself. Later, I used an awl to
pull the thread a bit tighter, distributing the
excess slack into the stitches further clockwise.

Photo 4: the third spoke...by now I had figured
out how to both maintain tight regular stitches
and dummy stitches. I like the appearance of
this, the leather lays out nicely on the wheel.
The only problem was that there seems to be
a missing stitch at the top, but in fact, that's
an illusion, there happened to be no stitch hole
at that location (bad luck, in other words).

Photo 5: the four/final spoke...I felt that this
was my best spoke stitching at the time.
The termination knot was only an inch or so
away, which made it hard to maintain the
tautness. My hands were really sore by then,
which also made keeping things tight hard.
I do notice some wrinkling on the stitches
themselves, perhaps they were a smidge too
tight?

Photo 6: the finished bottom panel is centered
almost perfectly on the bottom arc of the wheel.
You can barely see my terminating knot, about
an inch from the spoke on the right. It'd be
better to not start so close to a spoke next time.

Photo 7: this shows the top panel being about
an inch off center with the top of the steering
wheel. I didn't even realize this until after the
fact. Nominally, if you align the bottom, and
the leather panels are cut correctly, you'd think
the top panel would automatically fall into center
alignment. I surmised that the stretching of the
leather during installation causes the mis-alignment.
By the way, if you look at Wheelskins' own web
site, you can see that they have the same problem
(to a lesser extent) on some of their examples.

Since I keep my hands at the 10- and 2 o'clock
positions, thus over the seams, the mis-alignment
causes the seams to lay on different parts of my
left and right palms respectively. At first, my brain
interpreted this as the steering wheel being turned
slightly to the left.

I am now debating whether to re-install, this time
starting from the top of the steering wheel to get
the top panel perfectly aligned. It doesn't really
matter if the bottom panel is perfectly aligned,
since your hands don't normally touch the bottom
of the steering wheel as much as they do the top.

You can feel the stitches under your fingers as
you drive, and I like that. It makes for a more
secure grip.

 

Thanks for the great pictures, wish I had seen them before tackling the job. Glad I chose the one piece cover, mine was hard enough without the panels.

I started at about the 7 o'clock position and worked counter clockwise. I had similar problems at the spokes, getting better as I progressed. Took about an hour. I too had thoughts of re-doing it but it seems to have tightened up around the spokes after a couple of weeks of use.

 

I know this thread is a year old but we just bought our Prius in March and I am proud of my wife's handiwork. It took her a few hours and she used the cross-stitch method as shown on DCCarCare (where we bought the Wheelskins) - Don threw in an extra roll of thread. The wheel now feels closer to our Lexus in quality, and makes the car more enjoyable (at least a bit more). The plastic on this Generation of Prius just felt really cheap and insubstantial - nothing $30 and an understanding/talented wife can't fix.

 

That is a really nice work around the spoke and cross stitches. Looks really really good. I wish I can do stitches like that.

 

Maybe it looks baggy because the actual Prius wheel isn't a true circle; it's a little flatten at the top and bottom. Maybe one size smaller than "recommended" would look better...

P.S. Interesting. The WheelSkins http://www.wheelskins.com/size_chart.php?entry=sizes&manuf=Toyota site now recommends 14 1/8 x 4 1/8 for the 2010/11 Prius. Maybe a better fit now?

 

My Toyota dealer has slip-on leather wheel ccovers in 3 different colors for about $15 each. The install takes about 1 minute.