EagleTG
Active member
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):
and... (Note, the plastic version is on the left in this pic, rubber coated on the right)
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.
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):
and... (Note, the plastic version is on the left in this pic, rubber coated on the right)
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.


