GMC cckw/dukw wooden steering wheel

[Joe Gopan]

I like the wheels with all the pieces. Soon as we get an 80F day, it will get it's annual rubdown of Linseed oil with the 50% Turpentine chaser. The paint does have to come off to preserve the wood.

[bud44750]

I just received a used wood steering wheel for my open cab 1942 CCCKW and it had an interesting feature I had never seen before. My original steering wheel, after nearly 40 years in the woods of Washington state was so rotted that it had fallen apart but I could see that it was originally one piece of wood steam bent into a circle and joined with very long thin finger joints . My new one appears to be have been made of two concentric thinner sections of wood, one an inner circle joined with shorter fatter fingers and an outer rim piece also joined the same way and then the two circles were glued together to make a complete wheel . something to keep in mind if you plan to try and reproduce one yourself . I suspect that bending the thinner wood sections will bend easier and have less stress.