For those of you not familiar with the problems of recastinbg from a mold and rebuilding a wheel by hand, here is some of the problems I faced in the past. When a vendor is making steering wheels in a mold with your old frame, the problems that were discovered are: was the wheel ever in a crash where a persons body exherted some sort of energy to distort the wheel so as to not fit in the mold proberly so it will get plastic evenly around the entire frame. The other problem, and we all are guilty, is when we enter a car, we pull on the wheel to move our body to get into position instead of just sliding over to the position needed to drive. Another situation that cracks a wheel, and I personally observed this once on a cool, but sunny day. That was where the car was closed up, all windows up all the way and the sun shinning inside the interior. The wheel was facing the sun. I opened the door and the cool air rushed in and I heard a loud snap. I looked around at first thinking it was a snap from electric or a static snap. I then noticed my steering at the top with a crack that was not there earlier in the day. The plastic and the metal frame expand and contract at different rates. The plastic was cooling faster than the metal was able to, so hence the crack. Forever after, when I park any of my cars and the windows are to be up, I cover the wheel with a white towel. A light colored, removable steering wheel cover is a very good way to park a car, no matter how hot or cold the weather. A dash board is also apt to crack for some of the same reasons. I know it is not always practicle to do this, but it will extend the life of these items, and it does not stop there. Upholstery is another item that will break or crack under these situations.
Some of you already know I have quite a supply of NOS steering wheels. The only Imperial steering wheels I have are for 60, 61 and 62. The 63 is the same style as the 61-2, but the colors are toned down a lot in colors. I will be in touch with the wheel company in Penna. to see if he could use an NOS wheel to produce others in the future for the membership. Joe Machado
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