My '73 Comet GT Restoration Thread

Nice Job!!!

 

Thanks, man!

Thanks!

 

Looking good, Rusty! It looks like a lot of work.

 

Thanks, Paul. Yeah, took about 3 hours to smooth and sand the spokes, but it was worth it.

 

That wheel is coming along nicely.....

 

Thanks, Frank!

 

Today I got as far as I could on the steering wheel. My leather supplies are due in next week. I touched up the brushed steel since it had rusted slightly since I last worked on it. I then cleaned and prepped it for clear coat. I used Eastwood satin clear coat on the spokes. It came out very nicely.


Next I masked off the spokes and sprayed the collar with a fresh coat of satin black and satin clear. Then I customized my new horn button and installed it. Pretty awesome so far. I can't wait to get the leather in and start recovering the wheel.

 

Today I started practicing and creating templates for my leather steering wheel. The first part I wanted to figure out was the correct width for the leather around the grip of the wheel. My first attempt was a little too loose; the valleys between the grips were not tight enough. My second attempt came out pretty good.



Next I wanted to create a template for the spoke section. This was a little tougher. My first attempt was too small. You can see that I could not draw the leather together.


I made the template larger and cut out another test piece. This time it came out pretty good.


My next steps will be to create a complete template for the entire wheel using what I have learned so far.

 

Wow that looks awesome to me so far

 

Thanks!

 

Very impressive work!

 

Thanks!

 

WOW, that's ass kickin'...

 

Thanks, man!

 

One last test template for the steering wheel leather. I wanted to template up the seam section. I used white thread to sew it together so that I could see how well it went together. Came out great!



With all the sections successfully templated, it was time to move on to create the entire template for the wheel. Once I had the template made, I cut out the leather. All the holes are made. All that is left is to sew the ends together with black thread and start stitching it up!