I’ve got a steering wheel on a GTC that needed some attention. These wooded steering wheels have a tendency to crack, split, and the varnish wears thin. I re-glued the cracks and decided to refresh the varnish instead of stripping all the varnish and starting fresh. In the light of preservation, I wanted to keep some of the original patina but protecting the wood where the varnish wore off.

Before any work could be done on the wood, however, I needed to polish up the aluminum spokes. Years of oils and dirt from the driver’s hands gets on the spokes oxidizes the aluminum and dulls the finish. The fastest way to clean it up is with a machine buffing wheel, but the rest of the wheel has to masked off so not to damage the wood.

Care has to be taken not to buff too hard and remove the delicate engraving pattern on the spokes, but hard enough to bring back the shine!