WANTED Green steering wheel for my 72 Imperial

[Patrick Slegers]

Hello,
I'm in search of a green steering wheel for my 72 Imperial. As you can see in the picture, my steering wheel is cracked and the rubber that is in the inside edge of the steering wheel has hardened, so I cannot blow the horn anymore.

I know Chrysler New Yorker Brougham and Imperial has similar steering wheels so hopefully there are some good green steering wheels out there.

Or is it possible to restore this steering wheel?

Patrick

 

[CBODY67]

What you have is "normal aging". Replacement steering wheels defaulted to "black", paint to match, a few years after production. A VERY nice looking car. I think I'd try to keep it that way, if possible!

Chryslers and Imperials had the tilt/telescope column. Dodges and Plymouths just had "tilt", but my '70 Monaco tilt column had a steering wheel which looks just like yours, color and all, but without the telescope lock at the bottom. OF course, the trim pad had "DODGE" rather than "CHRYSLER", but would go in the same place.

I bought a new wheel in the later '70s for the Dodge application. Looked to be the same casting as the Chrysler wheel, with the contours for the telescope lock arm, but not machined for it.

It IS possible to patch your existing steering wheel. There are a few places you can seek, probably with a Google search or in the AACA forums. No matter if the wheel is a '70s or '60s, same places can do them. I believe some pricing goes up to about $500.00 for a really good fix? BUT you'll also need a soft rim-blow switch to put back in it! Even when new, replacing them was problematic, from what the old-line Chrysler service manager told me. Operationally, might be better to adapt a later model wheel that has a conventional horn actuation method? From the '79-'81 cars (but no telescope function) or possibly the '74-'78 C-body cars that still had the telescope function?

For my '70 Monaco, I think I'll investigate a repro Tuff Wheel with a normal horn button, but that's a little ways off just yet.

CBODY67