STEERING wheel repair

Has any of our East Coast MChatters seen, heard from Mark Wallach lately?
I have been trying to call him but continue to get a message.

Also does anyone have any currant experience with Steering wheel restorers?
Specifically the black plastic 3500 wheel with the ivory dots.
Ciao,
FGM
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Frank, here is the guy that I will be using...Curt [email protected]. He wants $650 to do mine. If you check page three of my post, you will see mine. He does beautiful work, from what I have seen (no personal experience yet).

 

Frank,

I had my steering wheel redone by Gary's Steering Wheel. He also did the shift knob, the headlight flash ring and polished the horn button. My wheel was missing a couple of ivory buttons.

http://www.garyssteeringwheel.com/

Ivan
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Ivan, your's looks gorgeous.

 

Frank,

Gary's Steering Wheel did a great job on repairing my 3500 gt steering wheel.
I thought it was ready for the trash bin not only did he do a beautiful job with the Bakelite and two missing white tabs but he welded and repaired a crack in the metal.

Best,

Jeff

 

Hello FGM
I might have a wheel you could use. Don't know how great it is, but not broken.
Rich [email protected]

 

Is there anyone that has this style steering wheel that can take two measurements for me? I am restoring two of them and find both with the same problem - the shape is slightly oblong with the width being greater than the height.

 

Here are photos of an extra 59 3500 GT/T wheel I have.

It seems to be 16.4375 consistently or 16-7/16".

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Thanks very much for the measurements. The two wheels I have here are wider than yours from side to side. I am now wondering if they were all out of round. The composite material they used for the rim easily molded around and didn't require a round internal rim. I will need to tweak these wheels into round to apply wood rims to them.

 

The wheel frame dimensions should be similar if not the same. These were factory production run wheels and not bespoke, one off creations, although obviously there was hand finishing etc. there shouldn't be much variation in dimensions.

I'm not understanding why you think the composite wheel material doesn't need a frame, without the aluminum frame...you've got nothing.

Personal wheels are not known for there monumental strength, but they do just fine in most cars, sans a decent shunt.

Keep us posted.

 

The steering wheel from my 3500GT is currently being restored by Gary's Steering Wheel. He did the one on the Vignale spyder prototype years ago an it turned out great. I will report back once he is done.

Ivan

 

Sorry, I worded that wrong. My statement "and didn't require a round internal rim" should have read "didn't require the internal rim to be round". The funky rim material was flimsy and didn't contribute much to the rim's rigidity. The out-of-round situation I'm experiencing could very well be from use, but I'm still suspicious of the manufacturing process. I have been slowly tweaking the rim and hope to make it reasonably round with some minor spoke bend adjustments.

Please explain your reference to Personal.

 

Personal is a manufacturer of steering wheels. Founded in the ‘60s and still going AFAIK.

Regards.
Mark

 

That I know. I was wondering if your mention had anything to do with the subject steering wheel.

 

Got my steering wheel back from Gary Steering Wheel and it looks fantastic! My wheel was broken in a couple of places and missing some of the "dots". He also did the black plastic portion of the horn. I had the horn chrome pieces redone and put a new center button.

Ivan
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The wheel looks very nice.

Can you give us an insight to the cost of your wheel repair/restoration?

Thank you.

 

$700 including two of the horn button rings. It took about 2 months. Unfortunately it appears Gary might be retiring.

I took the opportunity to also restore a second horn button. Does anybody know the significance of the gold horn button?

Ivan

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The gold horn button was Used on the early cars. I had a 1959 early car with this.

 

My first Vignale spyder was built in 1961 (#1129) and it had a gold horn button. Looks like some were used on later cars,.

Ivan

 

Typical of Maserati, they used what was in the parts bin. My Vignale #1119 has the later horn button. BTW I have some of the Gold emblems if you need to restore one.

 

#1311 which is up for auction next weekend at Amelia Island has the gold emblem. Go figure

https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/am25_r090/1961-maserati-3500-gt-vignale-spyder

Ivan
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Whatever they happen to have on the shelf at the time?

 

That car is gorgeous but could use a detailed was.
So they consider that interior to be brown?

 

It is apparent that the horn button was redon and is not correct. If you look at the side by side picture you posted you will see there is a starburst behind the gold emblem. This is what I have seen in the past. The button on the car for sale at auction does not have the star burst and it is the wrong shape