Can a wrapped LDO steering wheel be re-dyed?

The cover isn't in bad shape, just rubbed through the color in spots. Wondering if vinyl dye would work??

 

Is that a factory leather wheel? What year car is it on?

 

Yes, it can be re-dyed. The results will be great if the "skin" is not worn through to the rougher texture. You might check with a local detailer. We had a guy who stopped at the dealership once a week to do leather & vinyl repairs to the used cars and customer vehicles. He was able to mix and blend colors and the charge for fixing a leather steering wheel was about $30.

 

Factory wheel on a 75 LDO Comet,

 

That's the 4th one I've ever seen. Not very common.

 

I'm thinking about putting it on my Maverick if I can dye it. Not real fond of the woodgrain but at least the horn blows. The contact must be broke on mine.

 

I really like that steering wheel (although I prefer black). I've seen a couple on Ford pickups in the junkyards. Definitely a rare item.

 

These are very high quality, and after about an hour of work, you have a factory-appearing leather wrapped wheel. I have one of the on my '69 Fairlane.

http://www.wheelskins.com/original_wheelskin.php

 

That's what I used on my Chrysler 300, very nice product.

 

I ordered some dye to try first. I'd already emailed a company about a leather cover. They said I just needed to give them the measurements of the wheel with the cover removed. I'm going to give this a shot before I take the cover off.

 

dye is really just paint.. only fabrics can be dyed.. I guess it sounds fancier..
paint it whatever color you want. Use good flexible paint. prep with a suitable solvent. There is no infusion of color into fibers so it isn't 'dye-ing'. it's applying a color OVER something so it is called painting.

 

I agree. . . .

 

So this is paint?

 

You are mistaken. Many chemistries will exhibit molecular penetration with solid materials. Almost daily where I work we dye hard nylon parts. We change the natural translucent color to red, black, or blue. It requires the dye to be brought up to boiling temperature and the parts to be submeged for a few minutes. The color completely penetrates what is considered to be a hard plastic.

 

This may be what you guys are refering to as "paint". I've been looking into this stuff too. Wondering about the durability. I've used it before and had good results on seats but that was many years ago. EPA changes seems to ruin products though so I wonder if it works like it used to. Thinking about doing my seats since mine have some fading.