[njsteve]

Thanks for the compliment, but I prefer to think of myself as the Don Rickles of Restoration. ;-)

[njsteve]

I just got my AM/FM Stereo radio and 8 track player back from Wards Classic Car Radio Repair www.wardsclassiccarradiorepair.com They did a very nice job on the whole set up. It cost $175 total, including return shipping. It took about 2 weeks, which included an entire weekend that he let the 8 track player run just to make sure it checked out after they finished cleaning and refurbishing everything. I asked him what he was using to play for 48 hours straight. He said they have quite a collection of old 8 track tapes just laying around for that purpose. Knowing how bad these things sounded back then compared to today's sound systems, I cant imagine how they deal with it, but hey, they are the experts! I guess you have to scarifice for the sake of your art.

[ddmrk]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I just got my AM/FM Stereo radio and 8 track player back from Wards Classic Car Radio Repair www.wardsclassiccarradiorepair.com They did a very nice job on the whole set up. It cost $175 total, including return shipping. It took about 2 weeks, which included an entire weekend that he let the 8 track player run just to make sure it checked out after they finished cleaning and refurbishing everything. I asked him what he was using to play for 48 hours straight. He said they have quite a collection of old 8 track tapes just laying around for that purpose. Knowing how bad these things sounded back then compared to today's sound systems, I cant imagine how they deal with it, but hey, they are the experts! I guess you have to scarifice for the sake of your art.

I don't know what kind of deal you got from them but they have my set up right now and they want $300 for radio and 8 track ($150 each) plus shipping, they told me they Do NOT repair the 2 items for NO $175 shipped .

[njsteve]

My AM/FM stereo radio was working OK before I sent it. I only needed the 8 track player overhauled. They told me that they needed both units and the harness to make sure it all works properly as a unit. I guess they may have just cleaned and checked the radio and spent the majority of their time on the external 8 track unit. If you check their website I think they have price estimates listed. They charge about $175 for the AM/FM with internal tape players so I would assume they charge the same for an AM/FM with an external tape player. Anyway, it's their business to repair these things and I wouldn't second guess them as to what it takes to get these things working again. They do nice work though.

[njsteve]

The latest chapter was trying to restore the original artificial leather-like-substitute, foam padded, Formula "Fat" steering wheel.

I decided to do it myself since the repro wheels are close to correct, but the makers chose to use a very hard urethane instead of a soft one (don't get me started on why companies get that close with a repro part and then don't go all the way when it would be so easy to substitute a softer durometer padding...) and the fact that the so called "restoration" services for these wheels involve them dipping it in a hard plastic outer coating like a Carvel chocolate dipped, ice cream cone (Here comes Willy the Wheel...in my best Frank Carvel/Abe Simpson voice) that cracks the first time your turn the wheel hard left or right.

I decided to try my hand at redoing the original wheel because you can't nice originals for less than $750 on ebay and an NOS 1970 to 73 Fat Wheel will run you about $2000, and I had nothing to lose as my wheel was so badly damaged it was only useable as a core. (Don't confuse the "Fat" wheel with the later model thinner ones that came on 75 to 81 Trans Ams -humungous price difference)

These wheels originaly had a smooth outer coating that eventually wore away after years of use and exposure to the sun, leaving the underlying rough, cracked, crumbly foam material exposed. Here is a close up of what they end up turning into:

[njsteve]

One of the main problems with my wheel (and most older wheels) was that the foam had seperated from the internal steel core at the 10:00 position and could be rotated on the core like a motorcycle throttle. If left unaddressed, this defect would prove fatal to any attempt at a cosmetic restoration as the foam would turn and crack the outer surface.

What I ended up doing was performing surgury on the wheel. I used a razor and sliced through the foam on theback side, down to the metal core, and then filled the area with black weatherstrip adhesive. Once filled, I wrapped the repaired area tightly in masking tape and left it overnight to cure. The repair worked perfectly: no more turning foam.

(The in-progress photo didn't come out so here is a later photo with the incision marked in red)

[njsteve]

The biggest problem with these wheels is the lack of a similar material for repair. Some people use bondo (too rigid) or silicone (too soft), but until now there was no real alternative.

Scratching me head, I was digging around in the lab and found two 10 year old tubes of 3M rubber bumper repair epoxy. This is the stuff used for filling and repairing the elastomeric/endura bumpers on Camaros, GTOs, Trans Ams, Cudas and the like. Mixed in equal parts, it cures fast, is extremely flexible, sands easy and can be painted. Since I had nothing to lose, I used it: I ended up stumbling onto the perfect repair material.