Wheelskins (Steering wheel cover)

Forgot to mention, hope it's not too late to help you. I have a trick I use to help prevent the tangling/knotting issue. I pull as much of the free thread through the eye of the needle as possible. So when you first start, the thread is almost doubled up, only the last 12 inches or so I leave as a single thread. This means at any given time, you are only working with at most, half the length of cord as you would be normally pulling through.

Then just keep adjusting the position of the thread through the eye as you run out of the single thread area. Hope that is clear enough.

 

Thanks

Finished up this afternoon. I'm happy with it even though got more bunching on the 9 o'clock spoke than I'd hoped for. Someone recommended 'don't pull too tight on thread or cover will bunch up'. Sounds like pulling too tight stretches the cover around, then there's a bit too much so it bunches up a bit.

I drove to the gym with it and it feels so much better than the rough plastic surface. This is a good modification. Now I want to try to protect it from too much blazing sun. May toss a small towel over it at work or when parked in same position for hours. Here it is. Even though it doesn't look 'OEM' the feel more than makes up for that -





Before starting, decided to start at tip of wheel to get practice on rim before hitting hard part, a spoke. Don't know if best place, I'm a rookie. Mirror came in handy.

 

I preferred putting the stitches in with the section I was working on at the 7 to 5 o'clock position. So I kept cranking the wheel around to put the section I was working on at that position to make the stitches more consistent. When I reached the steering lock, I cranked the wheel around the other way.

 

LOL!

Damn...that advice was a little late to help me. I think it would of helped. I did a lot of research before I started here and on the internet and youtube....nobody mentioned that idea.

Of the 4 hellish or so hours it took me to install my wheelskin, I don't know how many long, long minutes of that were spent sweating bullets and trying to untangle the "glue like" waxed cording.

I'm kind of afraid to undo it....it's not too bad...but I'm a little torn, with what I know now? If I had new cording, I think I could do a better job.

 

Lol, the lacing is definitely easier using my method.

However, it only took me about 6 installations to arrive at my eureka moment.

Wheelskins will send you another roll of lacing cord if you contact them, especially if you provide them with an invoice or order number from your receipt. Using my method, you'll be surprised how fast it goes and the doubled up lacing is much less prone to tangling.

 

4 hours of hell and 6 installations? Spend $150 more for a nice aftermarket wheel (wood or all leather) which you can install in minutes and only once

 

I should have added that the six installations weren't on the same cover. I've installed Wheelskins on all of my vehicles that didn't come with oem leather wrapped steering wheels plus others for friends and family.

 

Been thinking the same thing.

Wow, I really threaded needle the hard way ... threaded it at the end of the cord and put in a knot at the needle. My sister also mentioned when sewing she just loops the thread through needle but does not tie a knot.

Seems it might be a good idea to keep some wax on hand to rub onto the cord if needed. The end part of mine is pretty lean on wax but part of that is from undoing about 9 stitches to try and tighten up a section which turned out to be a waste of time. anyhoo, woe is me

btw, if doing it again, I'd be tempted to get 2 cords and needles and try the baseball stitch. 2 cords are better than one

 

Whoa!!! Just called Piercey Toyota to quote the black leather Toyota steering wheel ... make sure you're sitting down ...

$756.81

That's the list and retail price.

 

Why get mediocre OEM steering wheel that's available on the Four and Five? Any of the much nicer aftermarket wheels can be yours for just a couple hundred and the leather matches perfectly too.

 

I was just curious about the price. I like the Luna Intl black/black wheel from Rakuten Global Market. The JDM piano black wheel not for me. I like uniform finish, not two tone.

Rakuten: Luna international LUNA ≪ standard grip type ≫≪ steering color black stitch color: Black≫- Shopping Japanese products from Japan

Silk Blaze is pretty cool too.

Going to stay put with the wrapped wheel for now, but it it's a ways off OEM look because the finish is glossy and it's a cover. Feels good though.

 

Good choice. Perforated leather looks and feels much nicer than OEM leather and I believe it also has the finger indentation, which makes it very comfortable to hold.

 

Have to say the feel of the Wheelskins unperf'd leather is pretty awesome. So much nicer to turn the wheel and feel that nice leather as it slides back through. I would do this mod over again.

Minor bummer the cover over spokes is not so tight, but I think I did pretty good overall for a rookie.

Doing it over again I would have been more careful to preserve as much wax as possible on the cord. I pulled the cord out to undo several dummy knots at one point, then to undo about 9 stitches towards the end and the wax was pretty much gone. Probably good to have wax on hand to rub it back onto the cord, but the instructions don't say so.

anyhow, enough of that. maybe sometime will do the replacement mod.

 

I have a 2007 Prius. I added a Wheelskin two nights ago. Turned out pretty well. We have one in my wife's Camry and another in my Miata. Great product. The trick is: take your time, pull tight, turn on the car and rotate the wheel (when needed) so you are always approaching from the same angle. Most importantly, when doing the dummy stitches around the spokes be sure to count the exact number of missed holes at the back. I insert the tip of the needle in the back holes to count. If you screw this up you will have extra holes on one side at the end (and it will bunch).

Before


After

 

Looks really good. the lacing above. Wheelskins is up in Berkeley here in Bay Area. They can lace one up for $40 in a short time. FYI.
Good modification. 10x better feel than the sandpaper plastic gen3 wheel.