GEN 1 Steering Wheel Red Stripe Restoration

[WNCHSTR96]

For the price point of a measly $25, this is what i'm going with!

Nice to see the price hasn’t changed since I purchased my strip back in 2019, unlike everything else

 

[WNCHSTR96]

For the price point of a measly $25, this is what i'm going with!

And it’s been holding up very well.

 

[Augster]

It took a year for me before I finally did the replacement, even though I've had the kit sitting on the shelf all this time, so here's a follow up with before and after photos.

Starting with the completely worn-out stripe....



Peeking at the underside to see how the ends are finished....



The ratty old one, next to the new. I lined up the old over the new to punch holes in the same locations...



New one on and looking good! Watching his installation video, the Builtright owner referred to the Ford original stripe as "leather" and his replacement as "vinyl." If the replacement is indeed vinyl, I would be truly disappointed...



I just couldn't line up the ends perfectly and stop the ends from splaying outwards while man-handling this in the cab, no matter what I did. Prepunching the holes as he did in the video was useless because I couldn't clearly see the holes afterwards so I ended up blindly making new holes during installation. Oh well, at least it's not visible at all unless you're trying to purposedly inspect it from underneath. I intentionally rotated the joint further forward than the steering wheel leather wrap joint to further limit its visibility.



For future reference, don't punch holes too close to the edges or the vinyl (ugh) may rip when tightening the threads. And the OCD in me would probably pull the steering wheel off to do the install on the bench in order to perfectly line up and tuck in the ends cleanly.

 

[WNCHSTR96]

It took a year for me before I finally did the replacement, even though I've had the kit sitting on the shelf all this time, so here's a follow up with before and after photos.

Starting with the completely worn-out stripe....

View attachment 481940

Peeking at the underside to see how the ends are finished....

View attachment 481941

The ratty old one, next to the new. I lined up the old over the new to punch holes in the same locations...

View attachment 481942

New one on and looking good! Watching his installation video, the Builtright owner referred to the Ford original stripe as "leather" and his replacement as "vinyl." If the replacement is indeed vinyl, I would be truly disappointed...

View attachment 481945

I just couldn't line up the ends perfectly and stop the ends from splaying outwards while man-handling this in the cab, no matter what I did. Prepunching the holes as he did in the video was useless because I couldn't clearly see the holes afterwards so I ended up blindly making new holes during installation. Oh well, at least it's not visible at all unless you're trying to purposedly inspect it from underneath. I intentionally rotated the joint further forward than the steering wheel leather wrap joint to further limit its visibility.

View attachment 481947

For future reference, don't punch holes too close to the edges or the vinyl (ugh) may rip when tightening the threads. And the OCD in me would probably pull the steering wheel off to do the install on the bench in order to perfectly line up and tuck in the ends cleanly.

I found turning the steering till the red strip is at the bottom made it SO much easier to sew. Unless you think removing the wheel is easier,