Steering wheel options?

Robotsan

Club Member
My incoming 280z had a nasty 80s leather cover glued to it - see pic, so I think the wheel is done for.

I'm torn between a wooden Nardi wheel (as I've never had a car with a wood wheel before) or a Datsun Competition wheel to keep it OE.

I have a few questions though -

1. It looks like you can get Datsun / Z horn buttons to replace the Nardi one - has anyone used these? Is the quality OK?

2. What do I need to know if going down the Nardi route - e.g. sizes, adaptors etc?

3. Am I right in thinking the stock 280z wheel is 380mm / 15"? With 205/60/15 tyres, will I find the steering any harder with a 350mm / 13.7" Nardi wheel? I'm guessing the 330mm / 13" wheels would be too extreme and might get in the way of the clocks?

4. To keep the steering wheel in the same place relative to the dash/driver as the stock wheel, how much 'dishing' am I looking for?

Thanks

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Russell

Club Member
That looks no where near as bad as the floor and would clean up pretty well I think. Looks like there are some other priorities on the car before you need to panic about the steering wheel.

Not sure if I am correct but worst case, you could cut that cover off and polish up the wood underneath, unless they are made differently to the early ones.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
That looks no where near as bad as the floor and would clean up pretty well I think. Looks like there are some other priorities on the car before you need to panic about the steering wheel.

Not sure if I am correct but worst case, you could cut that cover off and polish up the wood underneath, unless they are made differently to the early ones.

The floors have been sorted already - tiny bit of welding and then all painted with POR15. When the car arrives I'll be stripping the rest of the old sound deadening off, painting all the floors in body colour and applying new modern sound insulation. That's definitely the top priority yes :) Also got a dash cap, new door cards, seat covers, and will be doing the headliner, trans tunnel etc in vinyl myself.

So after that, there isn't much left and the steering wheel will kinda stick out among all the new parts, and I've always fancied a proper wooden wheel. So I'm not panicking, just wanting to have the whole interior looking like new :)

I'd rather not have the thin fake wood 240 style wheel anyway, even if it is underneath - hence why I was debating between a Nardi and the Competition wheel.

I'll definitely give cleaning it up a good go first though, but have been advised its probably not going to come up great.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
TBH you can get that recovered, Royal Steering wheels not cheap but good
Yeah, I've used them on my M3, great quality.

I'd still rather have a proper wood wheel though, so if anyone can help with the questions above I'd be really grateful.
 

Robbie J

Club Member
Yeah, I've used them on my M3, great quality.

I'd still rather have a proper wood wheel though, so if anyone can help with the questions above I'd be really grateful.
they are not wood but plastic BTW....they are OK but its fake wood look. I have both but if you don't have PAS you need the size or parking is a bugger
 

Robotsan

Club Member
they are not wood but plastic BTW....they are OK but its fake wood look. I have both but if you don't have PAS you need the size or parking is a bugger

I was talking about the Nardi wooden wheels - that's why I said "a proper wood wheel" :)

Yeah I was wondering about the size being an issue.. I'm hoping that just a little smaller (360mm vs 380mm) wouldn't be that noticeable though?
 

Robbie J

Club Member
I was talking about the Nardi wooden wheels - that's why I said "a proper wood wheel" :)

Yeah I was wondering about the size being an issue.. I'm hoping that just a little smaller (360mm vs 380mm) wouldn't be that noticeable though?
well before it was ripped apart it wasn't easy at slow speed parking with the full sized wheel...

It now has a PAS with a "fast" 22B subaru rack. It might be to much
 
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