For Parts Or Not Working

by "Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
Published 09/15/2017 at 15:59

Tags: Trans Amess ; Trans AM ; Pontiac ; ebay ; wheelopnik ; two wheels good ; partslopnik
STARS: 1

Gotta love making silk out of a sow’s ear... or whatever that idiom is supposed to mean...

I’ve been watching and getting e-mails about Trans Am steering wheels on eBay , and most have pricing ranging from $25 to $250. Since my car came without the OE wheel and instead had a Grant GT wheel from the 90's installed, I needed the wheel, hub, and horn contact. I have a spare horn button somewhere in my pile ‘o parts.

$250 wheels are like new, and come sometimes complete. $25 wheels, like the one on the right that I won being the ONLY BIDDER, are in pretty good shape, except for some slightly bent spokes. But included FREE SHIPPING.

Un-bent, this would probably be a $60-$75 wheel. Plus shipping. Maybe.

Now, since it did not come with the hub and horn bits I need, and THOSE go for $20-$75 based on condition, and almost NEVER have the little allen screws. So another wheel I was watching that had an opening bid of $20 (the one on the left in the top pic, this time with $20 shipping) was in very nasty shape, but had the parts I needed, so imagine my surprise when in the final minutes, no one was bidding.

So now I own two wheels. One hub. And one horn contact that’s twisted from where it’s supposed to be but seems to work just fine (the tab on the bottom left should be in the keyway on the right)

It also smells REALLY BAD.

I’m going to clean them up, apply some PB Blaster to the screws, clean THEM up real nice, and eventually have a ‘driver quality’ steering wheel for my still-engineless Trans Am project.

Baby Steps....

Replies (7)

"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
09/15/2017 at 16:30, STARS: 0

I refurbish stuff like this, let me know if you’d have any interest.

"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
09/15/2017 at 16:36, STARS: 1

Cool. If it ever goes from project to ratty but running to restored, I’ll let you know.

"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
09/15/2017 at 16:44, STARS: 1

Nice, those are some of the coolest looking OE steering wheels ever.

"My bird IS the word" (mybirdistheword)
09/15/2017 at 17:05, STARS: 0

Surprised it has bent spokes. Supposedly the repro ones are junk and bend like this, but it looks like the originals aren’t much better.

"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
09/15/2017 at 17:08, STARS: 0

I’m guessing it was in a bit of a crash.

"feather-throttle-not-hair" (feather-throttle-not-hair)
09/15/2017 at 19:27, STARS: 0

YESSSS! Finally got one!

"Dogapult" (dogapult)
09/18/2017 at 12:19, STARS: 0

Looks like a Nardi pattern. Is it?