Well, everyone. Difficult though it is, I have to admit I was just plain
wrong. Upon removing my original 15" wheel and examining it carefully, I
can tell, if only by "feel", that it's molded rubber and not leather. The
later 14.5" wheel I got at the junk yard is the same. It's just not nearly
as "rubbery" and supple , and it has a textured surface of micro-cracks due
to weathering that have the appearance of grain or finely-cracked leather.
The fake stitching seemed to be separate when we examined it under
magnification, but I can see now that when I push the tip of a needle
"under" what seems to be stitching, it will appear to start pulling away or
wiggling, but this is deceptive because of the way the tiny rubber
stretches. This probably sounds idiotic. But we were fooled---and we
didn't want to rip any of the "stitches" by pulling them all the way out.
I'm embarrassed, of course, and offer an apology to anyone who was misled or
wasted their time. I presume no one lost their life or wrecked their car
over this issue. :-)
I also have to say that it shows how one can be fooled. I saw a show about
the fake "Hitler Diaries" on The History Channel, and one of the lessons was
the "wishful thinking" people can get into, or how they may become biased
given a seed of evidence that points in a particular direction. We all
think we're immune to this, right? In my case it was the book _Triumph TR6_
that stated that the steering wheel rims were leather. I sought out the
evidence to show what I already believed, and tended to ignore (but not
entirely discount) those of you who said otherwise. My junk yard wheel
didn't help matters because of the condition it was in, and I didn't bother
to carefully examine my original wheel now. Again, my apologies to all for
this waste of time.
Phil Haldeman
haldeman@accessone.com
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