Philip:
I'm the lister that Trevor refers to in his post. I bought my TR6 new
off the dealer's showroom floor and I can state that my steering wheel
was not leather. It was a rubber compound that eventually bubbled as it
was attacked by UV rays. I might point out that we've all seen errors
in print by such authorities as the Bentley or Haynes manual. I'm not
an authority on much of anything, but I'll swear that at least my late
model TR came from the factory with a rubber grip.
Happy Motoring!
Jeff Johnson
'76 TR6 undergoing rebuild
Philip Haldeman wrote:
>
> Trevor Jordan says:
>
> > There were definitely rubber grips on at least some late model US
> > TR6s. I have two TR6 steering wheels, a 74 and a 76, both from US
> > models and they both have/had injection moulded rubber grips. The 74
> > is still on my car and very obviously rubber from the pieces that
> > have been chipped away. The 76 was gift from a list member and I cut
> > the badly deteriorated rubber grip from it myself. It has since been
> > remoulded and leather trimmed (but not yet fitted to the car).
> >
> > There may have been leather trimmed wheels fitted to some cars, but
> > there were definitely rubber ones as well. Perhaps someone can tell
> > us when and why the change occurred.
>
> Could it be that there is a hard rubber *under* the thin leather cover, and
> that if this leather comes off, the wheel looks as if it had always had a
> rubber rim? I haven't seen the core of the rim---which I nominally
> described as a "foam core". That was just a guess. I've never seen the
> actual material of the core. Is it black rubber? If so, that may explain
> why people have these "rubber-rimmed" steering wheels! I'm just
> speculating. But I've certainly found enough sources that say they're
> leather. (My original '72 wheel is leather. My junk-yard late-model 14.5 "
> wheel is leather. Every wheel I've seen appears to be leather. Books say
> they're leather. Catalogs refer to them as leather. Everyone I've spoken
> to in person says they're leather.)
>
> Phil Haldeman
> haldeman@accessone.com
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