• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Nasty Steering Wheel

G

garydh2000

CEG'er
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
66
Location
Western PA - USA
The leather-wrapped steering wheel on the 98 Contour I am looking at is disgusting. The top half of it has deteriorated in to a powdery mess. It's all shredded and nasty. The owner put an ugly back slip-on cover on it.

Is there a way to re-cover the leather steering wheel? What have you all done when faced with this issue?

Thanks,

G.
 
If it's for a 98 SVT (meaning Midnight Blue interior), you can forget finding a leather wrapped SVT wheel.

Discontinued now from Ford. Me and a couple other CEGers bought the last 3 in the Ford parts system from Bill last year.
 
keep checking ebay. a couple weeks ago, a brand new midnight blue leather steering wheel and air bag popped up for real cheap. im still kicking myself for not buying it
 
If it helps, when I was selling Fords, we used an aftermarket leather company called Classic Soft Trim. On one such occasion, I had leather put in an F-250 Supercab that had cloth from the factory. It came out well -- the buyer was happy with it. You can find a Classic Soft Trim installer in your area here:

www.classicsofttrim.com

Click the "locations" tab and search by state.

Also,for something that might be less involved, you could cut off the factory wrap and install a Wheelskin. Don Mallinson, of DC Car Care, sells them on his website at www.dccarcare.com.

One thing to be very mindful of if you choose the Wheelskin route, is their hairbrained sizing system. As far as I know, and past experience suggests this, they size to fit over the existing leather, which would make the wheel rim overly thick. As such, when talking to them, be prepared with outer diameter and rim thickness measurements so that you can be assured of a proper fit after removing the stock leather.

One thing that does make Wheelskin installation easier in the Contour is the fact that Ford did not put leather on the spokes. Because of that, you should be able to get a very nice fit. Additionally, you can choose almost any color you want, so if an aftermarket look rings your chimes, you need but say the word.

Enjoy in good health! :cool:
 
i kind of feel bad for saying this, but my steering wheel is real nasty too. i did a quick search and found a brand new oem svt wheel. so i picked it up.
 
If you don't want to buy a new wheel, or if you want to protect the one you just bought, I would suggest Wheelskins. They don't have anything that matches midnight blue, but plain black matches the shifter/brake boots and dash trim.

MVC_306F.sized.jpg


I was happy with the results, and I'm going to get one for the SVT soon since I can tell the wheel is just starting to wear down.
 
Are you looking for an SVT steering wheel? I have one in amazing shape from a 98 SE with the grayish beige interior. I'll let it go for cheap. Just shoot me a pm if your interested.
 
i made a custom one like the wheelskins out of faux black suede. its thin enough to maintain the stock diameter and you get the nice soft suede feel. mines not perfect but its way better than any of the slip overs or the really bad stock one. ill see if i cant get pics tomorrow.
 
Thanks for all of the responses to the "Nasty Steering Wheel" posting. The car I am looking at has a gray interior and gray leather steering wheel.

Thanks,

Gary
 
If you do happen to find a good steering wheel, I would give this advice. This is what I do.

1) Try to have clean hands all the time. After I get done working out at the gym, I always wash my hands just so I dont get dirt over the steering wheel on the drive home.

2) Dont rest your hands on top of the steering wheel while driving. I droop my hands over the top of the airbag/horn about 95% of the time. If you happen to wear that out, theres a ton of those covers out there in good shape. I rarely touch the leather shift knob. I shift from the reverse lockout just so I dont put any wear on the leather. As a result, both look practically brand spanking new.

3) Clean and condition your leather on a regular basis. I condition my leather seats almost everytime I wash my car and clean on an as needed basis. I hate seeing an SVT with prarie tan interior and the leather seats look black due to all the dirt in the cracks, especially on the side bolters. For your steering wheel, I would at least use the Meguiars conditioner in the spray bottle. It will clean it and condition your leather components at the same time.

My SVT has 111K miles and interior looks almost brand new mainly due to the way the previous owner and I have taken care of it.
n57101443_30734730_7772.jpg


n57101443_30734723_6106.jpg
 
or you can try picking up a non-leather steering wheel and dying it the correct color, mine isnt leather and not a single issue with discoloration/deteroiation.

However, I have the worst dash warp of the century :mad:
 
AliasJerk said:
or you can try picking up a non-leather steering wheel and dying it the correct color, mine isnt leather and not a single issue with discoloration/deteroiation.
Click to expand...
True, you won't have problems with leather cracking/crumbling but the nonleather wheels are very thick and ugly! Honkeytonk Monkey once related it to elephant hide in both look and feel; I've never forgotten that comment.
 
Rouar said:
True, you won't have problems with leather cracking/crumbling but the nonleather wheels are very thick and ugly! Honkeytonk Monkey once related it to elephant hide in both look and feel; I've never forgotten that comment.
Click to expand...

eh, I dont have girly hands, so I need a thicker steering wheel :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top