#94 Steering Wheel Cover

The steering wheel on this car is getting really worn and rough.  It is uncomfortable to grip it so I need to do something.

Wheel is worn and rough; uncomfortable to grip it.

Tried softening the rough patches with a heat gun but it didn’t flow and even if it did it would be smooth instead of textured for better grip.

So my choices are to replace the steering wheel or cover it.  A replacement wheel would be expensive and a fair bit of work so I chose to try the cover approach.  Got a gray after-marked cover that looks nice and seems to fit well.  It’s a tight fit and took some muscling to get it on but very do-able.

Installed slip-on cover. Looks and feels nice.

Camera flash exaggerates color contrast. In real life, the cover looks darker and is a closer match to the steering wheel.

If this doesn’t work I will try the more expensive lace-on covers that are customized for each car model.  They require some time and effort to install but are quite nice.

$8.96 for slip-on cover

#63 Rear Brake Light Cover, Round 2

Replaced the rear brake light cover way back in #22 but was not happy with the color match.  I darkened it up with some trim dye and now it matches very well; close enough for me, anyway.

Before:

After:

#32 Throttle Pulley Cover

There is a big plastic cover over the throttle pulley, held in place by a single screw.

The original sheet metal screw had been replaced by some fine thread machine screw somewhere along the way.  It was undersized so wasn’t holding the cover on securely, not to mention looked wrong.

Ordered a new screw and installed the cover properly.  Had to re-form the proper threads just a bit after having the wrong screw installed previously.

Much better now:

Wrong screw and correct screw shown laying on top for comparison.

$0.41

#22 Rear Brake Light Cover, Round 1

Car came with center rear brake light cover missing.  It had been taped over but that was ugly and coverage was incomplete so it was distracting in the rear-view mirror when brakes were applied.

Ordered a replacement for this since I couldn’t scare one up in the scrapyard.  Kind of expensive ($48) but I thought it was important.  Color doesn’t match well but it’s better than electrical tape and does block all light from inside the car.  I will look into darkening it up with some trim dye.

$47.26