Possible Re Manufactured CSL Petri Wheel

[Marc-M]

Dear All
I have sent my Petri steering wheel off to get renovated to…

https://www.steeringwheelrestoration.com/

The wheel steel was badly pitted and they have had to polish them out – the wheel was then satin finish chromed with new leather ….
It is a vast improvement on what I had, but talking to the chap there he says he could very easily manufacture them new.
They would be made out of stainless steel and finished to the original look.
However, he says he would only do it if 3 or 4 folks are interested.
He tells me the cost would be £400.00 each plus shipping.
He would deconstruct my wheel and make from that…
I am thinking about this option – and I wounder if anyone out there would be interested?
If you are, please msg me and I will add the numbers up (if any) and talk to him – and then you can deal directly with him.
He has restored a few wheels for me in the past and good to deal with – but takes a few weeks.
He makes a lot of wheels for clubs/ retails….

Marc

 

[craterface]

Good idea! I am not in need of one, although I think many coupe owners, CS, CSi, and CSL, would love a new Petri for 500-600 USD.


Scott

 

[JFENG]

Sounds like a very good deal. Is SS more desirable than the original steel? In my experience brushed stainless scratches more easily than chromed steel. Granted you can fix scratches in brushed SS.

Finally, is 400GBP near the bottom of the cost-volume curve for this shop?

 

[tferrer]

The devils in the details. If he thinks he could make money at $500 a pop, then he should crank up production because he could get 750 all day long..... If the details were good.

 

[alprada70]

Complete?

 

[teahead]

Brand new SS with the right chamfers and stitching?

Would have to see one done side by side with a real OEM one, but tell him there's definitely a market. Especially in the 38cm size. Tons of 2002 owners would love one.

 

[Cornishman]

Great idea, What do we do about a hub? Can he also do that and horn button?
I am interested.

 

[Marc-M]

a

 

[Marc-M]

The chap is still up for making new wheel... but he is so busy he’s not that bothered and I think it may be a step to far to get a few of us together and get some made.

However
I forgot to post my results for the restored wheel - it was in quite a bad state and here are the before and after pictures.

It’s not perfect - where it’s been polished there are slight smooth undulations where the pitting has been polished - you may pick them up looking at the photo.
The new leather rim is well done with the exception that the seam at the bottom is slightly over to the right.
The satin finish chrome looks well – not quite as dull a the original, but overall a pleasing result that did not cost a fortune.

The managed to keep the original inner rubber rim mould that is under the leather…

 

[Drew Gregg]

I'm in the process of finding the hardware for an original wheel with a pitted rubber/foam rim. I want to have the rim leather covered to make it at least 3- 1/2" to 3- 3/4" circumference thick. The foam rim is now just 2-7/8" around and that's too thin. What is the circumference of your restored rim? The 2nd pic is a vintage Porsche rim a local wheel restorer is completing. He's been doing this for over 25 years. You can see it will be about 3-7/16" around. Thanks, Drew
www.custom-steering-wheels.com

 

[Marc-M]

i will measure up for you - it should be the same as the orig - the only diff is the thickness of the leather as he used the existing inner bit - he taped it all up and it got plated with it on....

 

[Keshav]

Guys, you can’t compare the two wheels.
The Csl wheel has a hard rubber base with a leather wrap ontop of it which is basically the same thickness as the foam wrapped wheel. To re wrap a Csl wheel one removes the old leather and uses new leather thus coming back to the original thickness (depending on the leather).
The foam wheel on the other hand when wrapped in leather, gets the new wrap over the foam thus making the grip thicker than that of the Csl wheel.
Hope this helps...
Keshav

 

[DWMBMW]

Does the hard rubber base on a CSL also have the fake stitching or is just plain

 

[Keshav]

Does the hard rubber base on a CSL also have the fake stitching or is just plain

being that it’s under the leather, it doesn’t have any stitching, the leather above has it......real stitching as opposed to the foam wheels in which it’s fake

 

[DWMBMW]

Thanks for the confirmation. My 38 “foam” seems to be harder and thinner than other foam wheels I have seen/ held so I was curious if it could have originally had a leather wrap.

 

[Drew Gregg]

My question was just curiosity. Almost all of the wheels made for 60's and 70's cars were very thin compared to modern wheels. The vintage Porsche wheel w/o leather is really thin. He had one in his shop that was just getting refinished. Here's a pic of that one. It's not even 2-3/4" around. The original hard plastic BMW bus wheels are probably about the same as the Porsche wheel. My '72 2002 wheel is buried in the attic and will not be measured.

 

[Cornishman]

I am still interested.

 

[teahead]

I'm sure if it's modeled after the CSL wheel as close as possible, and kept under $1000 (since it won't include hub, hub cover, button, button retainer, etc.), then I'd imagine there'd be a market.

Especially if you include the 2002 crowd and maybe the VW crowd too.

 

[stphers]

But they will never be a real Peri wheel so why would they be worth so much? No matter how good they are, these would be a copy from not such a well known source. Would that make the real ones worth twice as much?

Thanks, Rick

 

[craterface]

But they will never be a real Peri wheel so why would they be worth so much? No matter how good they are, these would be a copy from not such a well known source. Would that make the real ones worth twice as much?

Thanks, Rick

Skicoach on the forum quickly sold what must have been a perfect genuine CSL Petri after offering it for $3000.