A steering wheel, that is. Well, in the case of my steering wheel, not much. It is a 3-spoke banjo wheel (each spoke is made of 5 thin, shiny stainless rods) with some form of plastic cast over the outer ring. In many wheels, the plastic is cracked and has to be repaired with epoxy putty, sanding, priming and painting. In my case, my wheel looks like this:
You'll notice a distinct lack of plastic. Considering this would have been one of the first plastics used commercially, this is entirely unremarkable. Assuming it was some form of cellulose, it wouldn't be UV, heat or moisture stable.
So, my options are fairly limited. Option 1 is the sure thing. I could send it out to a professional firm which recasts/restores steering wheels. This option costs between $600 and $2000. Option 2 is that I could look for a wheel from a '38. This was a 1-year part, so I don't like my odds. Option 3 is doing it myself.
I've played around with hobby-scale casting before and it seems doable. The biggest issue is trying to color match the resin. If I fail, I can always paint it, so I'm not too concerned. So, all I need to make this happen is a good condition wheel and some materials and I should be good to go.*
* - Spoiler alert, I alread have a wheel and some materials.
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