Sticky Steering Wheels? Permanent fix.

EagleTG

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This works on the "Steering Wheel Hoop Soft Rubber Style" Happ part numbers 50-1035-00HD, 50-1035-00 and possibly others (I had found another part number, but can't locate it now).

The games I am working on are Need for Speed cabinets, but this same issue probably exists on San Francisco Rush, Rush 2049, all of the GlobalVR and Raw Thrills games (Nascar, Fast and the Furious, and FnF Tokyo Drift for example).

These wheels get sticky, greasy, slimy and just plain gross over time.

This is actually the rubber on these wheels breaking down and there seems to be no way to correct it. I tried a bunch of suggestions found online with no success.

One of the wheels I had seemed that the rubber was also slipping around on whatever it was originally coating. I decided to try cutting and peeling it all off.

Don't get me wrong, this process took about 2 hours between cutting everything off, removing any leftover glue and gunk (Goo Gone and Dawn dish soap), and general clean-up. For the second wheel (pictured below with the rubber still intact), the process went MUCH slower, as the rubber was attached in a much more secure fashion.

To my astonishment, the wheel underneath the rubber is VERY nice both visually and from a usability perspective.

Here are two pictures (original wheel on left, "unwrapped" example on the right):
StickyWheel1.jpg


and... (Note, the plastic version is on the left in this pic, rubber coated on the right)
StickyWheel2.jpg


Awesome, just awesome. The plastic even has the leather-like texturing and all of the aesthetics of the original. The only drawback is there are little bumps on the back, but they don't take away from the use or feel of the wheel in my opinion. I might try Dremeling them off, but for now these are 100% better than the old gross wheels. Not only that, it saved me $50+ per wheel.
 
If they were in my collection, yes I would probably wrap them. Depending on what the ultimate destination of these cabinets is, I will likely leave them unwrapped for now.

I considered dipping them in PlastiDip or similar, but they are 100x better than they were previously, and are 100% usable in their current state.

Would a collector notice? Yes. Would a casual player notice? Probably not. And even if they did, it's not enough of an issue that I think they'd care. I also like that the wheels are now insanely cleanable compared to the rubber coating.

They didn't even get that much thinner in my opinion. Nowhere near what I had expected. LOL
 
Just wanted to bump this very excellent thread by EagleTG with some extra info...

I bought two Rush 2049 sitdowns with sticky steering wheels, and found this thread when looking up a solution. Eagle said it took him two hours to finish one completely. I've found that if you soak the steering wheel in extremely hot water, 175F+ for 15-20 minutes, it makes all the difference. Hot water from the tap won't do, heat it on the stove in a few pans first then pour it into a plugged sink. Only took me a half hour per wheel. If the rubber starts to cool and becomes hard to peel while working with it, soak it for an addition five minutes at a time.
 
Awesome tip, will try it when I have some time. Meanwhile, I have a party tomorrow night and waaaay too many things to do. So my quick solution to get me through until I can strip the rubber off is to clean them with a Windex-soaked rag, followed by air drying, then simply coat the wheels with baby powder. It'll make a small mess and leave some excess, but its nothing an air compressor can't fix. Admittedly, it does leave the wheels just a tiny bit slippery, but I imagine after a few laps the oil from people hands will make it grip better. Regardless, it's way better than getting that gross slime on your hands!
 
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