Changing or refurbishing wood and leather steering wheel

[Goldfish11]

The leather on my steering wheel on my EClass W211 is starting to wear. The finish on the leather is breaking down so you can see darker leather beneath. My car has an Orient beige interior so it is becoming quite noticable.

Is it possible to refurbish this leather to make it like new? How much would it cost? and who does this?

Alternatively, If I bought a replacement steering wheel how much does it cost to change a steering wheel?

(I would also be interested in this option as I currently have a full leather wheel on an SLK and have seen a replacement Wood and Leather on Ebay but have no idea how easy it is to change a steering wheel. I guess you have to change the electrics and also all the Airbag etc, if a dealer did this how much would they charge??)

Photos to show what I am fussing about (one with flash on without) :

 

[television]

To change the steering wheel.

Undo the 2 torx30 screws on the rear and unplug the air bag.

Undo the nut and remove the wheel.


You can re colour the wheel with cellulose or leather dye just by dabbing it on

 

[Goldfish11]

To change the steering wheel.

Undo the 2 torx30 screws on the rear and unplug the air bag.

Undo the nut and remove the wheel.


You can re colour the wheel with cellulose or leather dye just by dabbing it on

Television

So it seems easy to remove the wheel but what about removing all the internal bits and controls and putting it onto a new wheel? is this easy.

Any idea how to get a colour match to refurbish the leather?

 

[Sp!ke]

It would be a whole lot cheaper to do this

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=25319&highlight=scuff+master

 

[television]

Everything unplugs.

As spike and I said, you can re colour the skin, just by dabbing it on.
if you do that, do remove any grease or dirt from the skin before you start, this will also raise the grain in the skin and give better adhesion

 

[Goldfish11]

Thank you for the link.

Scuff master seems an excellent option for the W211 only problem is going to work out a way of getting a colour match. It says send them a bit of trim in the same colour (which means sending the steering wheel )

With regards to REPLACING the SLK steering wheel, would this be a do-it-yourself job or a dealer or wise independant job?

 

[Sp!ke]

Cant you send them a headrest?

 

[television]

snip off some leather from under a seat , it will be near enough

If you have the torx30 driver and a key for the nut, it is easy to do

 

[Alfie]

Television

So it seems easy to remove the wheel but what about removing all the internal bits and controls and putting it onto a new wheel? is this easy.

Any idea how to get a colour match to refurbish the leather?

Be very careful when removing the wheel as you must not turn the boss that is exposed underneath too much otherwise you will have problems. Also, take great care removing the contacts from the airbag

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

IIRC I once read that it's best to disconnect the battery before messing with the steering wheel, to minimise the risk of injury from the airbag accidentally detonating. It was on some bloke on the interweb though.

Do take care when you disconnect/connect the battery too, as this can damage SAM modules and other things I believe.

 

[mr. shr]

IIRC I once read that it's best to disconnect the battery before messing with the steering wheel, to minimise the risk of injury from the airbag accidentally detonating. It was on some bloke on the interweb though.

WIS says you should disconnect the battery.

 

[television]

99% of the time I said disconnect battery,,then other people come on saying that you can do this without disconnecting it.

In future I will always include that on my post as it is the correct way to go about it.

 

[mr. shr]

99% of the time I said disconnect battery,,then other people come on saying that you can do this without disconnecting it.

In future I will always include that on my post as it is the correct way to go about it.

I don't think many MB techs bother disconnecting the battery. I was once in a workshop (main dealer) and the tech just removed the airbag on my W202 with the battery still connected.
He said he preferred not to mess about with the battery as the process of re-connection was more likely to set the airbag off.

Personally, I still prefer to disconnect the battery.

 

[ANP320]

Thank you for the link.

Scuff master seems an excellent option for the W211 only problem is going to work out a way of getting a colour match. It says send them a bit of trim in the same colour (which means sending the steering wheel )

With regards to REPLACING the SLK steering wheel, would this be a do-it-yourself job or a dealer or wise independant job?

Not sure if it helps but I've just sent a headrest into Gliptone. I searched high and low for a piece I could snip and quickly concluded that I couldn't snip a bit big enough to enable them to colour match without wrecking the car. I rang Gliptone to confirm and they said that they needed the biggest "bit" possible. The bigger it was the more chnace they had of getting an accurate match.

Mind you, if your steering wheel trim is a different colour to any removable bits, then it's out with the scissors!

 

[Alfie]

WIS says you should disconnect the battery.

WIS seems to say disconnect the battery for just about anything!

Personally, I have done a number of steering wheels with the battery still connected but the ignition definately off and the keys removed.

 

[mr. shr]

WIS seems to say disconnect the battery for just about anything!

I've noticed this too, and on most occassions it says to connect some kind of current retention device. I assume this is to maintain a small amount of power to the car's circuits, but not entirely sure why?!?!

Personally, I have done a number of steering wheels with the battery still connected but the ignition definately off and the keys removed.

Exactly what the MB tech said to me when he removed my wheel. I guess it's a confidence thing. If you've done a particular job many times, you then start to learn which bits of the process you can remove.

 

[Goldfish11]

Colour Match Problem

Cant you send them a headrest?

I have emailed the Scuff Master people and sent every code I have. Unfortunatly they can not help as they do not recognise the colour codes.

The problem is that the seats and headrests are in a sand colour where as the top of the dash and steering wheel are in a darker brown colour. So snipping the seats or sending a head rest would not work.

The only things I can think of removing that are in this colour are the front air vent louvers but I dont know how to do this.

I went to B&Q and grabbed every colour card I could find in a brown colour and can not get a colour match on these either. So I can see finding something in the same colour is going to be a problem.

So any tips would be really helpful, I am not sure what else I can do

 

[television]

I have emailed the Scuff Master people and sent every code I have. Unfortunatly they can not help as they do not recognise the colour codes.

The problem is that the seats and headrests are in a sand colour where as the top of the dash and steering wheel are in a darker brown colour. So snipping the seats or sending a head rest would not work.

The only things I can think of removing that are in this colour are the front air vent louvers but I dont know how to do this.

I went to B&Q and grabbed every colour card I could find in a brown colour and can not get a colour match on these either. So I can see finding something in the same colour is going to be a problem.

So any tips would be really helpful, I am not sure what else I can do

Its quite easy, just go to any coach builder and ask to use their colour samples and you will find the same colour.

You could look at the aerosols in Halfords and take a number from the can

 

[Goldfish11]

Its quite easy, just go to any coach builder and ask to use their colour samples and you will find the same colour.

You could look at the aerosols in Halfords and take a number from the can

A coach builder Do I find these in the Yellow Pages? (Is this a paint shop or different)

Halfords may not be an option as I will be walking in and out with Aerosols.

 

[television]

A coach builder Do I find these in the Yellow Pages? (Is this a paint shop or different)

Halfords may not be an option as I will be walking in and out with Aerosols.

Just look under car coachworks or "car body repairs"

it had corossed my mind when using Halfords.

The sample cards used by coachbuilder are books of small colour samples that you just flip through while holding it onto the sample.

A celulose or synthetic product from a coach builder would do but not many keep it now,, we used to use that some years ago.
Base coats are not a finish in their own rights.