MatosTaco's Build Thread

Do you want to do mine?

 

You mean doing a leather wrap? If you send me the wheel and the leather wrap, I would be happy to do it.

 

All this messing around with steering wheels has me wanting to build something custom. I am thinking something a little wild, like flat bottom and flat top. Something like the MS paint mockup I have below, just with the corners more rounded, and possibly with some Carbon fiber.
THeory by Jose, on Flickr

 

One thing I don't like about the IS300 steering wheel buttons is having to push one in front and one in back of the wheel. I am thinking of building custom buttons that go up front. It will look something like this:


20210722_152406 by Jose, on Flickr


Up close

20210722_152411 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I also thought it would be cool to add a push start button to the steering wheel, like what Audi and Ferrari do. I have placed a poor MS paint concept of what I am going for below. Just need to imagine it with carbon fiber in place of the alcantara parts.

Steering wheel idea by Jose, on Flickr

 

Wow I love the concept and I always wanted to add a push button start, I just haven’t accepted loosing the ignition lock lol

 

I don't see it being a major issue, I've never been a big fan of that feature.

 

...and so it begins... I drew a line on the bottom of two of the wheels I have and scored them with a cut off wheel. From there, I went ahead and cut through with a band saw. Here is the result of that

20210724_190633 by Jose, on Flickr


From there, I did some finishing work using a belt sander

by Jose, on Flickr

20210724_203140 by Jose, on Flickr

Not that it really needs to be perfect right now. I still have to build up and round out the cross section of the flat portion.

 

Damn you dove right in! What will you use to build and reshape?

 

You know I was just about to get my wheel wrap from redline when I saw your experience with them, wow I guess they just don’t care about the quality anymore! anyhow I have been searching for another supplier I will let you know what I come up with

 

For sure, I would really appreciate that information! I've searched but have come up with nothing. I am literally about to start making my own wraps at this point.

 

JB weld makes this epoxy putty that I have seen people use to add ridges and thumb rests to steering wheels. I plan to get some and try it.

 

Alright, I went and got myself some epoxy putty by JB Weld and got to work. I basically comes as a tube that more or less looks like clay and there is a white epoxy inside a beige colored one. You knead the clay until it becomes one uniform color and then apply it wherever you want. It really reminds me of wood filler. It does dry rock solid with a sort of plastic feel.


This is the result after two tubes of the stuff. I will definitely have to build up more of it on the bottom. The second tube I applied on this one seemed a little old and it got really hot and dried out too quickly.

20210725_184438 by Jose, on Flickr


The other two tubes I used on the other wheel did a better job, and I improved my technique a bit. This will still need me to add more later.

20210725_184453 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here they are with a center cover just to get an idea of how the final product will look

20210725_184527 by Jose, on Flickr


20210725_184516 by Jose, on Flickr


There will be quite a bit of sanding work to do in order to get them both to look the same lol.

 

My push start button finally arrived. It is a little smaller in diameter than I expected, but not a deal breaker as I intend to print a bit of a shroud around it.
20210726_212839 by Jose, on Flickr

Here's a little mockup of how I plan to set it up
20210726_213015 by Jose, on Flickr

 

This is the current state of the epoxy on each wheel. I've put 3.5 tubes of the stuff on each wheel thus far. Of course, I will be sanding a lot of that off. I just prefer to have extra material to work with vs not having enough. 20210727_090352 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Started doing some work on mounting the push start button to the steering wheel. I took some basic measurements off the mount for the cruise control stalk on the IS wheel and made this simple mockup
20210728_175825 by Jose, on Flickr
The T section on this sticks out of the hole for the cruise control stalk, which allowed me to scribe a mark on it that follows the outer contour of the steering wheel surface at this point.

Measurements from that allowed me to create this piece, which doesn't follow the contour but does place a flat plate in the correct position to cover up the square opening for the stalk.
20210728_175830 by Jose, on Flickr

Once I was happy with the flat plate covering the hole properly, I used a contour gauge to determine the correct shape of that surface, traced the contour onto a sheet of paper, and then scanned that in to the computer. This allowed me to scale the contour in CAD and create this piece which matched the contour perfectly
20210728_175839 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I knew all along that the cover plate was a little too tight to the surface and that last piece allowed me to determine by how much to move it out so it just sits flush. With that information, I designed this housing that mounts there and can hold the button.
20210728_175850 by Jose, on Flickr
You can see that it has a small pass through hole to allow for wires to be run
20210728_175907 by Jose, on Flickr

Here is the look from the front
20210728_175912 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Before I did that, I actually used the contour gauge to design sanding blocks that match the inner and outer contours of the steering wheel. The final pieces compensate for the thickness of the sandpaper and with sandpaper inserted, match the wheel contours perfectly.

Contour gauge
20210728_183103 by Jose, on Flickr

Inner profile sanding block
20210728_183121 by Jose, on Flickr

Test fit (no sand paper)
20210728_183201 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I had to make a few adjustments to the upper portion of the button holder. Here are some pictures with the button in place. I plan to adjust the grooves inside so that the button is clocked with the letters horizontal. That, and I may shorten the height of the piece itself.

20210728_233107 by Jose, on Flickr

20210728_233124 by Jose, on Flickr