docwyte
SuperDork
4/20/18 4:24 p.m.
Does such a think exist? There are three things I dislike (ok 2 I dislike and 1 I hate) about my GX470. I dislike the narrow steering wheel rim and how close the brake pedal is to the gas pedal. I *hate* the "barn door" rear door! I really wish it had the tail gate arrangement that the Land Cruiser has, or the hatchback with glass that goes down like the 4Runner.
Since I can't do anything about the barn door or the brake pedal, I'd like to do something about the steering wheel rim. Are there leather wrap kits out there that also increase the diameter of the steering wheel? Suggestions?
mY WIFE'S jEE
whoops.
My wife's Jeep GC had the foam break down in the wheel. I took the factory leather wrap off, wiped off the black goo that used to be foam, and wrapped the wheel in bicycle handlebar tape before stitching the wrap back on. The adhesive on that tape is pretty mild, so I'll bet doing this over top of the factory wheel covering would work pretty well. Might make it pretty fat, though.
They also make leather handlebar tape if you want to be fancy. I'd test it with some cheaper stuff first.
For kart racing, I got leather handlebar wrap for bicycles and wrapped it around the steering wheel for a bigger diameter-it was easy to make it too thick but worked very well.
Related to loosecannon's observation that it's easy to make them too thick, I was happy with the one or two Wheelskins leather covers I used. They're not padded and aren't specifically for adding girth (knock off that tittering!), but they necessarily do add a little thickness to the wheel along with a better texture than a lot of factory plastic...
This should do the trick.
Yeah, the Wheelskins wraps are nice and do add a bit of diameter. If you wanted to add a lot, I suppose you could do a thin bartape wrap and put the Wheelskin over it.
A cheap alternative is tennis racket grip tape. I have used on steering wheels and motorcycle grips. Tough and works great.
Appleseed said:
This should do the trick.
I have one of these stretchy ones on my Sentra. It isn't pink, and it was a little small, so it was a real bitch to get on, but it has been on for several years, and works pretty well.
Handlebar tape is a decent option too.
I used a $11 leather wrap off Amazon on my Jeep that turned out beautiful and definitely increased the diameter noticeably. Search for Aully Park leather steering wheel wrap on Amazon.
aribert
New Reader
5/25/18 7:27 p.m.
I realize this is a bit of a late response. I glued a leather strip to the inside of a Wheelskins wrap (about 1/4 inch less width than the Wheelskins wrap) using contact adhesive. I then completely soaked the wrap prior to lacing onto the steering wheel of my Falcon. Leather dried to a shrink wrap fit of the wheel.
I know Redlinegoods (a shop in Poland that sells all kinds of leather products for almost any car online) sells both steering wheel recovering kits, and has an option of adding a high-density under-wrap that increases the thickness of the wheel. I'm actually about to order both for the Porsche, since it has an annoyingly skinny sterring wheel rim. I've gotten stuff from them before and I highly recommend!