[Healeys] Steering wheel repair

[JSARCH]

The most likely reason the steering wheel cracks come back is because the steel ring inside the plastic is continuing to rust and expand. Eventually the steel will rust through and the steering wheel will fall apart. I stored my BT7 steering wheel while restoring the rest of the car. When I started to restore it, it fell apart as if it was filled with dust. You may have observed this same process when you see cracked concrete with rust marks around the cracks. For safety’s sake, I don’t recommend restoring steering wheels.

 

 

From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Michael Salter
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2026 12:13 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] Steering wheel repair

 

Many years ago, I repaired the large cracks in the original steering wheel of my Phase 1 BJ8 by grinding them out with a Dremel and filling the cracks with JB weld. After sanding and repainting with epoxy gloss black it looked great however, after a few years, more cracks appeared at the interface of the JB Weld and the original plastic from which the rim was molded. Back then I replaced the original wheel with a shiny new Motolita wood-rim wheel, with which I was never completely happy, and all was good, sort of.

I am now faced with having to do the same type of repair on the original wheel from the BN2 which I am currently restoring.

Before starting with the JB Weld process again I thought I should do a little research to see if I could find a filler material which would form a stronger bond with the plastic rim material.

Gemini told me that the rim was made of Bakelite but I was not convinced. Bakelite is a “thermoset” plastic which, when heated, does not melt. A simple experiment quickly proved that the rim plastic was a thermo-plastic material because it easily melted and could be deformed when heated and again unlike Bakelite it dissolved in acetone.

I have done some Googling and it seems that it’s very likely that the plastic used for molding the rims was Tenite™ cellulose acetate. 

Does anyone know for sure what the original steering wheel rims were made from?

 

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