Hi all,

When I bought my truck (2 previous owners), the top of the steering wheel was showing wear. About last year, pieces of the leather started to turn upwards and it became almost irresistible to start picking at it---which I did. It was like biting fingernails!

So I bought a steering wheel cover from Amazon. Pilot was the brand. Got great reviews. The problem was it was really thick and didn't feel right. So I ended up giving it to Kafene.

Fast fwd to last week, I received the Wheelskins steering wheel recovering kit. It came with the cover and a thick needle with waxed thread. The thread is pretty tough.

Installation was relatively straight forward. You can only thread and tighten one hole at a time. It's best to hold and tug the previously tightened threaded string, thread through the new one, etc. This is to keep the thread from slipping backward. I discovered this about 1/4th of the way through. The hardest part is how to thread around the spokes. Takes practice. Take your time if you're really anal about how it will look. It's tedious for sure. Took me a good hour from start to finish. Oh one thing I would do over: if pieces of leather are peeling off, I would try to glue it down flat and then sand the high edges down. If you have access to leather filler of some kind, fill it and sand it down. This is the only reason why I'd do this stitching all over again.

How does it look? Well of course it is a wrap, so it is not flush fit around the spokes. However, it looks really good around the steering wheel part. The leather feels so awesome. I'm actually enjoying driving the 4Runner more because of it. Sounds stupid, but the steering wheel always bothered me.

There's one little section towards the end where I had a bitch of a time tightening it up. However, it's not bothering me at all. 90% of the stitching is good. I may redo it again. I called the company and they sent a new needle and thread at no cost to me.

Before:



After:



All 9 pics are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sizzler...7633803268381/



Verdict: to replace the leather steering wheel leather is really expensive. There's some dude in Texas a lot of internet car guys say is really good, but it costs hundreds of dollars, you're without a wheel, and assed out if you only have 1 car. The slip over ones I mentioned are really thick. I believe this <$60 is the best option in terms of comfort and looks. Just takes about 1 hr to install and you're golden