Refurbishing steering wheel controls

chrisba · Post by **chrisba** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:33 am

I'm looking at removing and refurbing my steering wheel controls but what's the best thing to use to get rid of the rubbery textured paint around the controls? I can't imagine sanding would work well but I might be wrong!!

markeg · Post by **markeg** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:48 am

Sanding is fine. I used sanding paper and iPA (not the beer, isopropyl alcohol

), then a number of coats of satin black after using some plastic primer as base coat.

Some have used pastidip but the results were varied and it didn't last.

Swiftly · Post by **Swiftly** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:41 pm

I bit the bullet and bought a set of new ones from the dealer, since most of the DIY finishes I had seen either didn't look quite right to me or they didn't appear last

Post by **srhutch** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:24 pm

As above IPA and a cloth will remove the rubber coating

I've found some soft touch lacquer which I'm going to try, but Satin black seems to be holding up well TBH.

nfarmer · Post by **nfarmer** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:29 pm

markeg wrote:Sanding is fine. I used sanding paper then a number of coats of satin black after using some plastic primer as base coat.

+1

Dudda · Post by **Dudda** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:26 pm

Can you remove the controls without messing around with the airbag?

chrisba · Post by **chrisba** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:49 pm

Thanks for the replies all. I am currently wait for one of the satin black coats to dry!

I totally underestimated the length of time needed to take the airbag and the other bits off so it was dark by the time I started painting. I'm now in the kitchen so I may have immaculate looking steering wheel controls by the morning but I may also be minus a wife!

Post by **srhutch** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:55 pm

Dudda wrote:Can you remove the controls without messing around with the airbag?

You might just be able to get them out, but it's not hard removing the airbag and that's the route I would recommend.

Dudda · Post by **Dudda** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:04 pm

srhutch wrote:
Dudda wrote:Can you remove the controls without messing around with the airbag?
You might just be able to get them out, but it's not hard removing the airbag and that's the route I would recommend.

Oh right, I guess I could remove it to take the controls off then refit while they are refurbished?

Post by **srhutch** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:06 pm

That's what I did, but don't connect the battery with it removed.

markeg · Post by **markeg** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:29 am

I couldn't get the controls off without removing the air bag as they are "lipped" behind the airbag module. Also, it would be very fiddly to unscrew the controls - and a slip of the screwdriver when remounting would ruin that brand new paint job

Stingray468 · Post by **Stingray468** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:32 pm

I bought a set of new spokes, P/N 32348035326 $196.06. Took apart and cleaned control bezels with IPA (took "tilt" buttons out for easier cleaning between them). I left bezels glossy. Took about 2-3h in total.

//Lasse

Claretsam92 · Post by **Claretsam92** » Mon Nov 22, 2021 11:57 am

That looks fantastic.

I've made a bit of a mess of removing the rubber top coat so I'm going to be rubbing them back and spraying them.

Out of interest how did you remove the tilt buttons? I've unscrewed the back off the button assembly and the single button drops out but the tilt is still retained by something.

Darkangelv2 · Post by **Darkangelv2** » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:40 pm

They just need a little more encouragement from the front. They disengage from the pivot one side at a time so focus your force on the left to start and it should pop that side out just fine.

kis · Post by **kis** » Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:06 pm

Nice revival!

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