Did any of the earlier Chevies have steam bent wood steering wheel rims? If so, there may be interest in a You Tube video I just made. The video gives a step by step description of how I went about reproducing one. It wasn't made for a Chevy but would apply to any steering wheel with a steam bent wood rim. The link is
Arend, Thank you for posting this link to your youtube videos, They are an excellent tutorial.!! Everyone should watch these and learn, i have been thinking about making my own hood bows when i get to that time.!!
Thanks. I think I gave you the wrong link. My steam bent steering wheel video is at Good luck on making your top bows. You can also do them as bent laminations. This would probably be stronger but not as original or nice looking if you want to display them instead of wrapping them like the originals were. If you decide to do bent laminations you would make a form to bend them around and cut you wood in 3/16" strips or less. Soaking the strips beforehand makes them easier to bend. Again I would use urethane (Gorilla is one brand but pricey) glue.
Arend , your first link was correct to the steering wheel rim steaming , but i found your other video for the hood bow as well while there , so included the link as well. The work on the wheel is rim is fantastic, and a real credit to you.
I had it in my mind that i would have to make a former for hood bows on a table , but i think the way you have done it is easier. Were you able to steam the second bow , and then remove the first , apply the keeper strap, and then bend then second, untill they were all bent.
It would probably take longer to cool the bows than to steam them. You could make an extra form so you could do them one after the other, alternating forms. You should expect some breakage and air dried wood is better than kiln dried. For no apparent reason some boards seem to work better than others. I made a fair amount of oak kindling before I got it to work reasonably well.
Fantastic, i really enjoyed the video on bending the top bow. I am in the process of completely rewooding my 35 chev roadster and this video will really help when i get to wanting to bend things rather than bandsaw cutting them out and sanding smooth.
