custom fiberglass steering wheel

Want to know how do i create a fiberglass steering wheel. i saw one in a magazine a while back, by fishman i believe and always wondered if its a hard task to tackle? Any info will be greatly apprecciated.  thank you in advance

Do you have a sketch of what you want it to look like?

Will if just be round and circular like a standard steering wheel.  I can give some insight as to how to start it, but I need a design or shape to go off of.

I draw some designs when i get home and post them to see if I can help materialize it.

I know that is a bit elaborate, but that overall shape.  Is that what you are going for?

if you do wish to cast it out of clear resin, i believe i can lend a hand.  Alumilite makes very good products.  First off, it will be very hard to get a crystal clear part.  Small bubbles will form in the resin, and will show up in the finished part.  You need to pressure cast it to force out the bubbles.  A pressure vessel big enough for a steering wheel will be very costly.  You could cast it in just about any color you want using dyes.  That would make it look much better.  Also with clear casting resin, you would need to make the part perfect, or pretty close to it, because any cut you make will have to be polished back to clear.  But if you are still interested heres how to do it. 

First step is to make the part EXACTLY how you want it, out of wood or plastic.  Any non pourous material will work.  If you use wood be sure to seal it with something like clear coat.

Second thing is to make a mold.  You will most likly need to make a two part mold.  The guys at alumilite can explain it much better than me, so check out their website.  www.alumilite.com

They cover the rest of the process at that website.  They also sell RTV rubber and casting resin that will work for your project.  You will also need a very precise digital scale to mix the resin, like a jewlers scale.  hope i've been of some help.

Hey, hey, hey....wait a minute, this is a fabrication forum.  Make the dang thang....uhhh, dang it!!!  7 out of the 17 stearing wheels I have fabricated similar to your description was made from 5/8 rebar.  Get some decent lengths of rebar (your going to have to determine how much you need according to your design).  Cut only one at first, weld it to a factory steering wheel plate from a salvaged unit if you want.  Using a torch, heat/bend to the desired shape to act as a foundation.  Weld the bent rebar (I usually use 3 bars of rebar together to form a large enough bulk for the foundation), weld it to the wheel plate, even if you have to buy one of the Grant adaptors.  From this point on, turn on the front, back, left, and right sides of your brain and use your imagination.  You can pack the bar/wheel with foam/expanding foam, glob bondo filler all over it.....anything you want to bulk up a shape (I packed one steering wheel with bondo after the foam build, then put on some rubber gloves and squeezed the steering wheel to have finger imprints on the fore-side of the handles).  By the way, if you want to imbed some buttons or switches into your wheel, dont forget to wire the steering wheel first before you pack on the body filler/ect.  You could get even more raw with your metal skills and wrap it in steel sheeting, tig weld it, rivet it or whatever you desire.  These are some general ideas to set you back on the CORRECT track, which is FABRICATION.  But, if you want a clear plastic one...to each his own.  Ill leave you all with a web-site to provide you with some visual candy that may pop a spark into your sights....some of you veterans may remember this car....

https://iweb.alpine-usa.com/html/adc/adc_install5.html?par=p1c5

....when you first get on this webpage, scroll down to the bottom and pick "13", the last picture of this page is the very beginning of the steering wheel.

If you want to see the forefront of the site, here.......

https://www.stevebrownuniversity.com/links/links.aspx

So, what ever happened to this post??????????????????  Did I blow this project out of the water or are you finally busy bustin' your balls fabricating your bad ass steering wheel?  If so, lets see some pics, but if not, what the heck happened? 

Com'on you, Im'a all anxious and stuff!!!!!!!!!!

i understand that in order to have a steering wheel like this it can not be a daily driver, but you still have to move a show car some.... drive it a little bit, wouldnt a fiberglass wheel.... break? Maybe start off with the factory wheel and cut away unnessary places then build off of that?

No, of coarse not...  Even if it were constructed of fiberglass only, it would be useable for normal driving.  However, if you wreck your car, that steering wheel is toast, especially since the airbag is no longer there.  But none of mine are ever "ONLY" constructed of fiberglass.  Ill take it for granted that you didnt read any of this posting before you asked that question....being I fully explained the use of re-bar for base structure for the designed figure the customer requested.  I do use foam as well as fiberglass to cover and finish the housing parts for electronics when desired.  Our upholstery acquaintence finishes them sometimes with a soft padding then leather or whatever the customer requests.

I have used a factory wheel, burned all of the plastic/rubber off of it to expose the metal structure and built from there.  All of my fabricated stearing wheels are used a minimum of 5,000 miles per year (I only know this being my mom is an insurance agent and insure alot of our streetrod / lead sleds / mini-trucks / kit cars / ect. and they all report more than 5k per year.)

If your a driver like me, your hand pretty much stays on one part of the wheel, and your elbow rests on the top of the door panel, and my other elbow resting on my formed and fabricated center floating console.  My steering wheel is constructed as a single "D" shaped triangle...if you will.  I have a steering quickener like the racecars use.  I only have to move the "D" about 7 inches either way from center to lock - lock.  This enabled me to have a large console thats molded with all the freaky amp racks, DVD/stereo, TFT/LCD screen, LED indicators, gauges, switches, power cap, glowing plexiglass emblems, epicenter crossover networks, pneumatic stick shift....all in a '95 SuperCab Ranger.