Although my steering wheel had been changed from the four spoke wheel to a retrimed three spoke wheel from a Merc C203 (it's a coupe, but I don’t know more details). I was never 100% happy with it as it still looked too Mecedesish. In a recent post by somebody else ( sorry I can’t remember who) about stickers I alluded to having a new wheel. ( well retrimed again). A lot of thought has gone into this, and a lot of pinching other people’s ideas. It’s back now and here it is.
Pic 1). A general view of the wheel. The thickness has been increased from 28mm to 33mm. A much better feel. The stitching of the leather has been changed to what is called single stitching which gives more visible thread and a double row of stitching has been added to the air bag break line.
Pic 2). The top of the wheel. The Italian flag colours.
Pic 3). The California badge set into the middle of the lower spoke. The spoke itself has had the depression removed and the bottom of the wheel has had a flat added.
Pic 4). The crowning piece of the conversion. Rather than just the usual semi-perforated leather which we call perforated, this is perforated with 2.5mm diameter holes. A layer of yellow has been placed below the perforated leather to show through the holes. The black leather had to be redyed after it was perforated so it’s very black at the moment. This should fade after a bit to reduce the contrast. A bead has also been added between the leather of the spokes and the rubber of switch panel to hide the height difference