CRG Discussion Forum

Camaro Research Group Discussion => Originality => Topic started by: 68 Ragtop on February 18, 2017, 07:38:20 PM

Title: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 68 Ragtop on February 18, 2017, 07:38:20 PM
I am always looking for a nice 1968 N30 steering wheel and have seen hundreds of them. I have never seen one like this.  It's either a very rare item, or it was custom made. I am leaning towards custom made. Thoughts?

(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/UA4AAOSw5cNYhUMc/s-l1600.jpg)


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-CHEVROLET-YENKO-CAMARO-RS-SS-RARE-VINTAGE-REAL-WOOD-STEERING-WHEEL-OEM-/332100057011?hash=item4d52b4b7b3:g:UA4AAOSw5cNYhUMc&vxp=mtr (http://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-CHEVROLET-YENKO-CAMARO-RS-SS-RARE-VINTAGE-REAL-WOOD-STEERING-WHEEL-OEM-/332100057011?hash=item4d52b4b7b3:g:UA4AAOSw5cNYhUMc&vxp=mtr)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: william on February 18, 2017, 07:43:37 PM
Looks home-made to me.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: cook_dw on February 18, 2017, 08:44:58 PM
Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 1968RSZ28 on February 18, 2017, 09:07:57 PM
They should have painted the center brown to match the wood; then Darrell would be saying "beautiful!" ;)

Paul
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: m22mike on February 19, 2017, 01:20:28 AM
Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.

Your being kind :>)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 68camaroz28 on February 19, 2017, 02:24:27 AM
Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.

Your being kind :>)
X2, I'm with Mike!
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: cook_dw on February 19, 2017, 03:50:48 AM
Lol
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 69Z28-RS on February 19, 2017, 03:38:31 PM
Ugly it might be..  but ..  I'm thinking that somewhere/sometime over the past 30-40 yrs that I HAVE seen steering wheels similar to that..  ie..  with a standard looknig (black vinyl) type center with a wood grain ring... not sure it was even a Chevrolet... it'll come to me sooner or later, or someone with a better memory than I will pipe in on this...  :)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: maroman on February 19, 2017, 07:36:24 PM
Is this one real wood or plastic. It looks like the varnish is rubbed off at the bottom.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: jim28607 on February 19, 2017, 08:08:34 PM
Looks like a Pontiac wheel to me , with a Chevrolet bow tie added????
But in reality I don't know squat , about this !!!
Just my 2 cents
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 1968RSZ28 on February 19, 2017, 08:38:36 PM
Is this one real wood or plastic. It looks like the varnish is rubbed off at the bottom.

The eBay listing description says it's real wood.

Paul
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: z28z11 on February 22, 2017, 02:28:04 AM
Looks like a '68 Walnut sport wheel to me - seller probably can't tell the difference. I've an old 63-67 Corvette walnut that looks just like the finish on this one: even with all the cracks it has on it, it still beats the daylights out of this one on the cosmetic side. Double ugly -

Steve
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: Charley on February 22, 2017, 03:05:00 AM
You can tell in the pics it is real wood. Someone put alot of work into it.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 68 Ragtop on February 22, 2017, 03:59:03 AM
I am pretty sure it started life as a regular plastic N30 wheel. Somewhere along the line it probably cracked, like they all do, and someone hand crafted real wood in place of the plastic.

Interesting, but not worth the $995.00 asking price IMHO.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: Gars68Tux on February 22, 2017, 08:53:42 AM
Ugly it might be..  but ..  I'm thinking that somewhere/sometime over the past 30-40 yrs that I HAVE seen steering wheels similar to that..  ie..  with a standard looknig (black vinyl) type center with a wood grain ring... not sure it was even a Chevrolet... it'll come to me sooner or later, or someone with a better memory than I will pipe in on this...  :)

How 'bout some of the Cudas and Challengers ? Guess if it had a Hemi I could live with it !  :)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: Kelley W King on February 22, 2017, 01:17:20 PM
I checked with guy who does mid year corvette teak wheels about repairing the crack in my rosewood wheel. He said he could do it with real rosewood but did not re do plastic ones. Could be his work. I saw a NOS rosewood in the box at a show and the repops just do not match, so I just ride with the crack.
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 69Z28-RS on February 22, 2017, 02:03:40 PM
Ugly it might be..  but ..  I'm thinking that somewhere/sometime over the past 30-40 yrs that I HAVE seen steering wheels similar to that..  ie..  with a standard looknig (black vinyl) type center with a wood grain ring... not sure it was even a Chevrolet... it'll come to me sooner or later, or someone with a better memory than I will pipe in on this...  :)
How 'bout some of the Cudas and Challengers ? Guess if it had a Hemi I could live with it !  :)

you might be right...   In 1970, I owned a '70 Challenger RT/SE with *every option* available (but no hemi!), which had a wood grain appearing wheel ring with rim-blow feature.. but I have no photographs, and my memory isn't quite good enough to reconstruct that image in my head...?  It may have been made like this..  with black vinyl tri-bar and outer ring in wood grain??
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: maroman on February 22, 2017, 03:33:11 PM
I thought I remembered that by '68 the Gov't stopped allowing real wood wheels because of the chance of breakage in an accident?
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: dutch on February 22, 2017, 04:13:08 PM
Ugly it might be..  but ..  I'm thinking that somewhere/sometime over the past 30-40 yrs that I HAVE seen steering wheels similar to that..  ie..  with a standard looknig (black vinyl) type center with a wood grain ring... not sure it was even a Chevrolet... it'll come to me sooner or later, or someone with a better memory than I will pipe in on this...  :)


Sounds like a Ford thing.. as a matter of fact I though the Torino line has something like that didn't they
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 68 Ragtop on February 22, 2017, 04:26:51 PM
Here is an interesting article on how to make your own wood wheel using your original plastic wheel as a core.


http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/93.cfm (http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/93.cfm)

(http://www.secondchancegarage.com/articles/images/steeringwheel//steeringwheel-10.jpg)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: Gars68Tux on February 23, 2017, 05:15:42 AM
^^^ Lotsa work alright. Very cool.

Ugly it might be..  but ..  I'm thinking that somewhere/sometime over the past 30-40 yrs that I HAVE seen steering wheels similar to that..  ie..  with a standard looknig (black vinyl) type center with a wood grain ring... not sure it was even a Chevrolet... it'll come to me sooner or later, or someone with a better memory than I will pipe in on this...  :)
How 'bout some of the Cudas and Challengers ? Guess if it had a Hemi I could live with it !  :)

you might be right...   In 1970, I owned a '70 Challenger RT/SE with *every option* available (but no hemi!), which had a wood grain appearing wheel ring with rim-blow feature.. but I have no photographs, and my memory isn't quite good enough to reconstruct that image in my head...?  It may have been made like this..  with black vinyl tri-bar and outer ring in wood grain??

Here's what I was thinkin' of. Makes the Custom wood N30 look GOOD !

(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/l~IAAOSw2xRYj3jp/s-l1600.jpg)

Here's the ebay ad...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/272556899156?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 69Z28-RS on February 23, 2017, 02:53:43 PM
and here is an example of the 'rim blow' that was on my challenger RT...   they had a black padded center button...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-1971-Cuda-Challenger-Rim-Blow-Steering-Wheel-Mopar-70-71-/311795320897?hash=item4898730841:g:nB4AAOSwA3dYgSpG&vxp=mtr

I actually think there were several cars that had wheels like that... maybe my wife's '70 Mach I (which also had a rim blow wheel on it)..  I still have that car, so I'll go and refresh my memory... maybe take a pix.. :)

PS.  Have any of you younger fellas ever driven a car with a 'rim blow' steering wheel?  To blow the horn, one just 'squeezes' the wheel while you're steering.. (takes a bit of getting used to).. :)
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: 69Z28-RS on February 23, 2017, 03:18:36 PM
Rather than go to my shop and clear enough dust off the '70 Mach I to check out it's rim-blow steering wheel, I used the next best thing to my shop... (Google).. :)   and found a couple of Ford/Mustang/Cougar rim-blow steering wheels from 1970.. (this must have been the thing in 1970).. :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-Ford-Mustang-Mercury-Cougar-XR7-Mach-1-RIM-BLOW-Steering-Wheel-70-w-Pad-/302111183991?hash=item46573ad477:g:HDgAAOSw8w1YBjum&vxp=mtr

It's also wood grain ring with black vinyl trimmed tri-bar.. (maybe the padded tri-bar in the center of these '70 wheels had something to do with the gov't mandates for safety at the time????)..
Title: Re: Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?
Post by: camaronut on February 28, 2017, 01:25:41 AM
Wow...ingenious at the least!!!!  Click on the eBay link and check the back-side picture.  Makes me laugh.