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Just a little "somethin' somethin'" from my creative side.

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Old 11-12-2011, 03:39 PM
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Wheels, not rims!!
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Just a little "somethin' somethin'" from my creative side.

A few sq ft of italian 1.2mm thick genuine leather/suede, nylon beeswaxxed thread, and ~25 man hours resulted in this.

I've always wondered why company's such as Ferrari, Bentley, and Rolls Royce hire old (age) leather craftsmen. The amount of craftsmanship, skill, and patience that goes into leather work is tremendous. This certainly allowed me to gain appreciation for those who work in this field.





















These two pics were taken after 4 weeks of use:








Last edited by SayNoToPistons; 11-12-2011 at 03:56 PM.
Old 11-12-2011, 05:05 PM
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You have done a terrific job. The thread looks nice and the general look is awesome. It's not perfect but it is yours and that is also worth a lot. Sewing leather is something i could never succeed at.
Congrats!
Old 11-12-2011, 05:49 PM
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Wheels, not rims!!
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Thanks!
It definitely has its flaws. Something I can live with especially being my first major leather work.
Old 11-12-2011, 05:55 PM
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I wouldn't call them flaws, just smaller imperfections!
The fact is that most leather products are not just stitched but also glued in place with special adhesives. Your job is neat beacuse you worked over the original leather on a painfully difficult surface.
Buying a spare steering wheel just to cut the leather off of it and start from scratch would be way easier but that's why your result is so cool

Even the cars you mentioned have simpler shapes. I can send you a couple of reference pictures if you want.
Old 11-13-2011, 01:20 PM
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Wheels, not rims!!
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Yeah, I chose not to glue the new leather onto the old because that would allow me to reverse back to the original two tone (which I also love).

Measuring and trimming the leather sections was the most time consuming. Each spoke had their unique and intricate shape, even for the left and right. It would have been easier if I hadn't chose to stitch the spokes with two lines of stitches instead of wrapping leather around the spoke and stitching it once from behind the spoke. I thought it looks much nicer like factory.

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I would definitely like to see some reference pictures.
Old 11-13-2011, 01:39 PM
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Old 11-14-2011, 09:38 AM
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Nice work man. Looks like quite the time consuming project.
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