Super rare 1968 N30 wood steering wheel or one off custom made?

[68 Ragtop]

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://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-CHEVROLET-YENKO-CAMARO-RS-SS-RARE-VINTAGE-REAL-WOOD-STEERING-WHEEL-OEM-/332100057011?hash=item4d52b4b7b3:g:UA4AAOSw5cNYhUMc&vxp=mtr

[william]

Looks home-made to me.

[cook_dw]

Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.

[1968RSZ28]

They should have painted the center brown to match the wood; then Darrell would be saying "beautiful!"

Paul

[m22mike]

Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.

Your being kind :>)

[68camaroz28]

Looks home-made to me.

And ugly as shit.

Your being kind :>)

X2, I'm with Mike!

[cook_dw]

Lol

[69Z28-RS]

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... 

[maroman]

Is this one real wood or plastic. It looks like the varnish is rubbed off at the bottom.

[jim28607]

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

[1968RSZ28]

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

[z28z11]

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

[Charley]

You can tell in the pics it is real wood. Someone put alot of work into it.

[68 Ragtop]

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.

[Gars68Tux]

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 ! 

[Kelley W King]

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.

[69Z28-RS]

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??

[maroman]

I thought I remembered that by '68 the Gov't stopped allowing real wood wheels because of the chance of breakage in an accident?

[dutch]

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

[68 Ragtop]

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

[Gars68Tux]

^^^ 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 !



Here's the ebay ad...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/272556899156?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[69Z28-RS]

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)..

[69Z28-RS]

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?)..

[camaronut]

Wow...ingenious at the least!!!!  Click on the eBay link and check the back-side picture.  Makes me laugh.