Has Anybody Had Any Luck Painting A Plastic Steering Wheel?

[driz]

Yea, mine is crappy and now the wrong poop brendle brown the boat used to be . I have done a lot of painting in my day , even painted my plane once but never did or heard of anyone painting a steering wheel. No big loss really if it doesn't work out as it looks to be pretty generic but has anyone ever successfully painted one and had the paint not peel?

 

[ProduceMan]

Only thing I can think of - https://www.krylon.com/products/fusion-for-plastic/

 

[Ebug]

I have no idea on plastic paint that will stick to a steering wheel. The cheap factory wheel on my boat is not a hard plastic, but rather has a rubbery feel to it. I'm sure what ever you use will need to have a flex agent in it. Seems there is a paint that sticks well to flexible car bumpers. Might start with talking to an real paint store that sells auto paint.

In my app I have decided to do some sort of wrap using 550 cord. Been looking at Youtube and trying to find a pattern I like and my simple, non braiding mind can comprehend. LoL

Rob

 

[lovedr79]

if it is hard plastic the plastic paint will stick. if its like the one i had with rubbery sections on it no. i like the idea of paracord wrapping. wont get hot in the sun!

 

[richg99]

I'd just put a wrap on it. Used to do it with my cars a hundred years ago. richg99

https://smile.amazon.com/Lemonbest-Universal-Leather-Steering-Stitch/dp/B00PC0G07A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465388052&sr=8-2&keywords=steering+wheel+wrap

 

[overboard]

I'd just put a wrap on it. Used to do it with my cars a hundred years ago. richg99

That will work! :lol:

Another option, since it's a boat, is to use paracord or the 550 and half hitch wrap it all the way around.
I think every wheel/helm I ever touched in the Navy was done that way. Pretty simple, but may take awhile!
If the wheel has finger grooves it may not come out as nice as on a smooth wheel because the cord doesn't lay against itself as well.

 

[bcbouy]

i painted a pair of boat seats with vinyl upholstery paint by duplicolor i believe,and they still look great after 5 years.i don't see why it wouldn't work on a steering wheel,unless they used secret steering wheel paint from the factory.

 

[driz]

I'll give it a try and hope for the best. I have some elasticizer additive left over some long ago paint job. No rattle can spray for me though, I never had much luck with that stuff on anything of any size. I likely have some sort of acrylic enamel kicking around as well that is suitable. Anything but that crap brendle brown.
The part I was worrying about the most was the wheel grip itself. Looking at the Amazon wrap on all I can say is wow. The one's I am accustomed to were the sort you got in Ames Dept Store back in the 70's that looked like ka ka and worked about the same. That $9 one appears to be as well fitted as the one on my GMC from the factory.

 

[richg99]

re The Amazon wrap....I've never seen it, but almost 300 reviews, with most of them positive, says that it must be acceptable to some people. Have fun. richg99

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Ballin'

 

[driz]

Well here it is. I couldn't find any epoxy primer so against my better judgement took to the rattle can using Krylon primer and some auto touchup spray enamel I had kicking around from some dollar store a few years back. The result isn't bad really. Not what I would want on my car but good nuff for a boat and I can always repaint it with the real stuff and / or lace the wheel (probably will lace it anyways for the texture) later on.
Trouble with that rattle can stuff was as always fisheyes. It might look good now but oh how I fed those craters over a couple days. I was amazed it came out as good as it did. It's hard to get the item clean enough by wiping with thinner or reducer. Then you never really know whether anything in those are going to disagree with something in the primer or paint afterwards [-X
The metal piece above and behind is a cover for where Tracker had all their switches mounted. I used a piece of scrap aluminum plate I had around. I replicated that swirl pattern using a 1" rolock with the scuff pad (brown) attached and a drill press. There are directions on youtube and it's just about impossible to screw up. It reminds me of a guy I knew in the army who had that look on the dash OEM on his Cosworth Vega. Very nice effect and it cost me all of $1.50.
Yes I noticed that I have the wheel upside down. It ended up that way when I spun it centered to snap this with my crappy Android. Also the missing screw from the panel. Fixed that too

 

[onthewater102]

Following your lead I took the old steering wheel off the boat - cleaned it well with some degreaser, taped off the metal trim sections, gave it a little TLC with some sandpaper & zapped it with some Kryolon plastic paint. The paint seems to have bonded very well - time will tell how it holds up but for the $1 worth of paint it took to pretty it up i can afford to hit it again down the road.

Before:

After:

NO MORE 80's FAUX WOOD CENTER!

 

[PBRMINER]

a cheap NEW grant wheel is $34 from Autozone FWIW..... Im ordering one for mine

 

[onthewater102]

my rattle can of paint cost $5 and i still have 90% of it

 

[driz]

Looks good. It's not so much the actual wheel itself that looks bad usually but rather the center parts . Note on mine that aluminum panel. That's a great idea for cover ups and dress ups. Like I said you pretty much can't screw that swirling up and it's nearly free. The Raptorliner or any other bed liner is great too for covering up split crazed or fugly repairs. Trouble with that is it's not cheap like swirling.


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