Steering wheel recasting

37 CTS

My 37 Hudson Steering wheel is in need of recasting. It is way beyond repairing the plastic is broken and too much is missing. My internet search and phone call leads me to consider using J. B. Donaldson of Phoenix AZ. They were reccomended by a shop too busy to take on my project
My question is has anyone use J. B Donaldson and where they satisfied with them and the quality of the work done?

RonS

They did my 1950 Cadillac ivory wheel recast 10 years ago. Pricey, but they do perfect work. Did they say they can do your 37 Hudson, and what was the cost?

37 CTS

I was told they have a mold for the 37 and wanted $1095 including shipping back to me.

37 CTS

Yes it will be restored completly and they insisted on sending the horn button to match the finish on the wheel. Said they owned had a 1937 Hudson

Jon B

I've heard good things about Mr. Donaldson. Also, I recall that 10-15 years ago he was attempting to come up with the integral speckle / swirl / fleck plastic used in the 1937 wheels. In fact I have a sample he was sending around for approval, but I cannot say that it matched the original type of plastsic. However, he may well have hit upon a close match, since then.

I assume you were aware of the Pearlcraft company in Australia? The late Cliff Minard had his steering wheel refinished by them and it looked quite authentic. Here's a photo on their website, of a recast wheel in an English Hudson:

StillOutThere

Donaldson does Pebble Beach quality for Pebble Beach customers.

I've used D&D and am very happy: www.danddautomobilia.com

37 CTS

DandD had a backlog of orders, they were very helpful.

RL Chilton

That interior above is just gorgeous. Sheldon, please post pictures if you have your wheel re-cast. Is this for the sedan?

Jay_G

Well, here is mine. I made the mold and cast it myself. This is a pic of it on my car. a few years back I was looking at reproducing them for about $600 and every one thought the price was to high. Well maybe it wasn't. The only issue I have had was some slight cracking where the spokes enter the plastic. If I were to do it again I would try a different plastic. Be careful of the color. It took me quite a while to find a good match to my existing knobs. With that I say good luck...Jay

Jon B

Looks very handsome, Jay. I recall a running discussion on the Forum about your re-casting these wheels, back in 2009, before the National Meet in Pontiac. The last I recall hearing, you had hoped to take the wheel to the National to see if you could get some interest in it, but an unexpected expense prevented you from attending.

After that time, I don't recall any further discussion of the wheel on the Forum.

Considering all the work you did to make the mold and to run several "tests" to get just the right swirled effect, I don't think the $600 was out of line. Pearlcraft (which made the beautiful wheel in the photo I posted, above) charged almost $900, plus $100 shipping, for redoing the wheel and horn button -- and that was back in 2006! Presumably, we'd save money in shipping alone, dealing with someone like you in the continental U.S.

In short: I hope you may continue with this project (now that you've invested so heavily in it). If you could show this around at a few meets, and establish a definite price and fabrication schedule (so you could take orders and do all your work at one time), you might find some buyers. Maybe you could even make some small plastic samples (little "chips", really) and lend them out to potential buyers so they could see the quality of your work.

Speaking personally, I would LOVE to remove the sleazy leather wheel wrapping from my fractured plastic '37 wheel, and show off the wheel in its true colors!

(Sheldon, I don't mean to hijack your thread here, but when you mention reproducing 1937 steering wheels, you open up a limitless discussion!)