Steering wheel alignment stripe gone!

That's such an easy little fix when you lay it out. The stock strip does not hold up at all.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I am definitely going to have to get on this in the coming weeks.

I was hesitant to start tying to pull it off until I saw the little write up. Thanks for the advice.

Good to know.

Awesome tip...just fixed mine with JoAnne Vinyl. The store by me sold it by the inch instead of the yard which was nice! I reused the thread off my factory stripe since I could not find any to buy that was even close to the thickness.

Thanks FRF!

cbcgeneral said:

Ok @Airic it's pretty simple. The old strip has three stitches in it so cut them and remove the strip. Use that as a template for the length to cut the new material. I made mine a little wider so what I did was measured the width and doubled it so that when you fold the two edges in length wise they meet in the middle of the strip. I used fabric glue and coated the underside of the material, then folded both sides in to the center point and sandwiched it in the middle of a large book for about an hour to crease the edges and give the glue time to dry. Then is just a matter of stretching it around the wheel and restitching it the was it was when you removed it. I used a thicker curved needle with red upholstery thread which is thicker than normal thread. If you're using regular thread I would just double it up on the needle.

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This is what I did. My stripe was all worn out, now it looks perfect. way cheaper then a new steering wheel and prob better quality leather too

nice write up

Thread digging. Count me in this boat. How do I go about sewing new red on? Thanks.

Black_Valkyrie said:

Thread digging. Count me in this boat. How do I go about sewing new red on? Thanks.

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If you want to external stitch to look like stock, I found that a continuous interlocking suture technique worked well (if you google it to see or already know how, you'll have to do it have the locking side be on the inside for it to look right).
You'll need to wrap it around one side of the wheel near the edge of the stripe (in the groove in the wheel where it was put on initially), then just wrap and tie the other end off and tuck it in to hide the knot.

Took a couple attempts to figure it out but looks like it was never touched. A few practice runs on a broom handle may make it easier to get the hang of it.

I didn't use fabric glue, and it's still solid with not movement or wear after Doing this in January.
I'm sure there are other ways that can achieve the same look and I'm not an upholstery guy by any means but I hope this helps others down the road

I'm not following this at all. The steering wheel alignment strip on my 2011 with 73,000 miles on it looks like new.

However, as a leather worker, I can tell you that most consumer leather dye will come off with acetone. Be careful with control to prevent the acetone from getting on the rest of the steering wheel - you might use a handful of Q-tips for application and removal of the unwanted black dye. Then re-dye with whatever color you want. You might try this before actually replacing that strip. BTW, Tandy Leather is still in business and you can mail order anything in their catalog from them if you don't have a store in your vicinity.

Ruger said:

I'm not following this at all. The steering wheel alignment strip on my 2011 with 73,000 miles on it looks like new.

However, as a leather worker, I can tell you that most consumer leather dye will come off with acetone. Be careful with control to prevent the acetone from getting on the rest of the steering wheel - you might use a handful of Q-tips for application and removal of the unwanted black dye. Then re-dye with whatever color you want. You might try this before actually replacing that strip. BTW, Tandy Leather is still in business and you can mail order anything in their catalog from them if you don't have a store in your vicinity.

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Mine was very worn on the front when I bought it from the previous owner, probably from a ring or something I assume. Do you happen to know of a place that might sell smaller quantities to leather to replace it? All my local shops had told me I'd need to order/purchase a full hide to get a color that's even in the ballpark.