A couple years ago at a local German car show I stumbled across a vendor with some ‘80s era accessories for sale. I wasn’t really shopping, but a slightly worn ItalVolanti steering wheel sitting on the grass caught my gaze. The brown leather horn pad was imprinted with the words “Audi Sport” in white. I figured it might not only be rare, but also the perfect complement to my friend George’s ’85 Coupe GT project. So I sent a quick text.
The founder and face of VWvortex’s Audi offshoot site Fourtitude.com for more than a decade and later the editor in chief of the Audi Car Club North America magazine Quattro, George Iives and breathes the Audi brand like no one else I’ve ever met.
“Hey, found this steering wheel,” I texted. “You interested in it?” He asked the price and quickly answered back, “Yeah why not, let’s give it a try.” I Venmoed the seller and walked away with the steering wheel.
On the drive home, however, I realized that it was missing its outer wrap. The foam that normally lives underneath the leather was bare naked, fully exposed. But it matched so closely to the brown leather on the center of the steering wheel that I hadn’t noticed the difference. Now I felt bad. Maybe this wasn’t such a great deal after all. I called George when I got home and told him what I found.
He wasn’t bothered by it, but I certainly was. To clear my conscience, I knew I could probably make good on my oversight. I’ve upholstered a couple complete car interiors from scratch, and made some shift boots and small leather accessories for other projects. I figured a steering wheel wouldn’t be too difficult to restore.
A little background
I dug into the details of the wheel a little first. It turned out to be an “Indianapolis” model from ItalVolanti, a car accessory brand similar to – but less common than – Momo. The Audi Sport version was a licensed factory accessory sold over the counter at Audi dealers in the 1980s. According to the date code stamped on its backside, the wheel was produced in February of 1984. It was indeed rare, and even more four decades later.
Apparently ItalVolanti made numerous co-branded Indianapolis variations for both European and Japanese brands. I found only one other Audi Sport example in pictures online, however, and it was a 3-spoke version. Nevertheless, this was a key discovery, as it revealed one of the horn buttons was originally decorated with the Audi Sport stripe motif in red and silver, a detail missing from the example I’d picked up.
A quick visit to a local upholstery shop had me looking through remnants of brown leather for a color and texture that might closely match the intact center pad. I landed on a smooth, supple hide that was a very close match for color and also felt incredible to the touch. The shop owner cut off enough to make two pieces, just in case.
Next on the hunt was the correct thread. Steering wheel covers are cross-stitched by hand using a heavy multi-strand lacing thread. Local sewing shops had nothing comparable, so I hunted it down on the web. A waxed cotton thread I found looked right, and I ended up ordering a couple different versions of dark brown to test with the leather. I also needed special needles.
Restoring the wheel
With proper materials now in hand, it was time for the hard part: making a pattern. The main diameter of the rim was easy enough to calculate, but there was the issue of how to deal with the four spokes. I also had to figure out where the seam would land. As the Indianapolis was a fairly popular steering wheel (except for the Audi Sport version) I was able to determine that position from other examples.
I was able to count stitches between two of the spokes in one of the reference photos to calculate approximate spacing. This translated into a punch pattern I used to mark the back of the leather. My trusty handheld leather punch created the perfect holes for the hand stitching, one at a time. I also used some neoprene foam material to punch out new nipples to reconstruct several missing finger grip pads on the back of the wheel.
Joining the two ends of the wrap was a simple matter of machine sewing, then it was time to start wrapping. With the seam lined up to its location marks on the wheel, I started hand-lacing the cover together on the rim using a classic double cross-stitch. Each of the four sections was done individually, a somewhat tedious process without a mounting jig. With the last section closed up, a bit of upholstery glue attached the unstitched “wings” of the leather to the spokes on the wheel.
The final detail was making the Audi Sport logo for the horn button. I reached out to George to get the Pantone numbers for the red to find a close match in vinyl film, because I knew he’d know. A local sign shop I’d used in the past trimmed off a couple swatches of both red and silver graphics film. I scaled a version of the logo stripe to match the space on the button and then hand-trimmed the material in place.
The end result is what you see here. A fully refurbished Audi Sport accessory wheel, looking damn near as good as when it left Italy more than 40 years ago. I presume. Regardless, it was a solid first effort, if I say so myself. And a great way to save face for an honest mistake.
