Corona Timekiller 5: Wheelskins Steering Wheel Cover

I've had this thing sitting on my bench for about four months and decided that I couldn't put it off any longer. I was not looking forward to this.

To the best of my recollection, this is the seventh time that I have installed a leather steering wheel cover. The last time was 22 years ago. The job is that miserable.

The original wheel on the Volvo V70R was partially covered with Alcantara. There is absolutely zero trace of the original material on there, but there is some stubborn glue on the back side of the wheel at the twelve o'clock position. It was getting annoying.

I bought a Wheelskins cover ($50) because they are supposed to be the best. They may be the best of what is currently available, but the Genuine Honda accessory leather covers of the 80s and 90s were much nicer. They're all a major PITA to install though.

So...here we go. Not a ton of photos because I was too busy swearing. Total time from start to finish was 90 minutes. Each one of them was a tiny bit of torture.

Final Assessment:

It's better than it used to be  

Hopefully, it will be another 22 years before I do this again.

I've done three of these in recent years using the cheap Amazon version someone mentioned here. I never found it all that bad - a bit tedious, I suppose, but nothing that requires multiple therapy sessions to get over.

I installed one of these on our 2007 F-150 a couple years ago. It's definitely one of those things that you get better with practice. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I've only done a couple in my lifetime, so by the time I needed to do it again I had forgotten anything I had learned. Personally, I wish I had purchased a second thread to switch it up with. I would have left it out in the sun for a month or so and then restitched it after the leather had stretched out. As it was I waited a couple days and then used a HF metal hook to pull every stitch tighter until I had worked all the way around the wheel and then retied the ends. It's pretty good but not perfect.

In reply to CAinCA :

I think the key with these things is to not expect perfection. That way, you won’t be terribly disappointed. 

I put a WallyWorld slip-over wheel cover on my S10 when I had it, and it fit well, took 1 minute to install, looked 1 zillion times better than the sunbeat original wheel, and never slipped.  Grand total of about $10 to boot.

My Civic was a 500 dollar car so it only seemed fitting to put a ten dollar cover on it. I'm the guy on this board who has been crowing so loudly for these 10 dollar Chinese Amazon covers. They're good enough for the junk cars I drive.

One for my Land Cruiser arrived last week straight from China. I've been letting it sit on my bench so the Chinese cooties have a chance to dissipate.

I installed one of these on the Sonata.  The steering wheel felt so plasticky I was willing to gamble on a cheap cover.

For my first wheel cover it came out all right.  It took about 90 minutes after re-doing half of it.  It shipped with a second string and if I were to do it again I would use one string to sew around each of the spokes to keep the wrap from shifting during the procedure.  That would reduce some of the wrinkles around the left and bottom spoke.  I started at the 5:00 position and it shows as the right spoke looks smoother.

Afterwards the wheel felt noticeably more fat/thick, like some BMW wheels.  Maybe that's an upgrade?  But not so much that I didn't adapt quickly.  The leather feels great and shows zero wear after 15K? miles.  I would not hesitate to do another if I needed to improve the feel of a wheel.  Price was good and the product felt like good quality.

For cars that come with already stitched-on leather steering wheel covers, how does the stitching get done? Are the manufacturers paying someone to do this, or is there some machine that can do it?

My wife regularly sutures up huge flesh wounds in horses. 

Damn right I had her do the wheelskins on our Silverado. It took her longer than normal but it only cost me serving her a mix drink.