The leather is nice and all, but I am honestly preferring my paracord wrapped wheel. It's slightly thicker, doesn't get sweaty/sticky in the summer, and it was cheap and easy to do and looks great.

It's now the #1 thing people notice about my 99 D2 when they look inside and I get compliments on it all the time.

 

I saw your paracord wrapped wheel and LOVE the idea... I'm just not sure if I could pull it off. I guess it's cheap enough that I should try.

 

Not doing a plug for them, but I have bought shift boots for our Grand Am and Stealth from them, and always been happy. They are in Poland I believe, but like I said they ship quick and its really nice leather.

 

post a pic of the paracord wheel man. I'd like to see it

 

You have three options with the paracord wrap.

1. Cut off old leather Top/Bottom & place the paracord directly onto the rubber on the wheel. (What I did)

2. Leave the old leather on and place the paracord on top of it. (Slighlty fatter & not flush with the rest of it)

3. Cut old leather off Top/Bottom and then remove the center white cord from the paracord to make it a smaller diameter.

I used a standard axe wrap technic and it turned out flawless. I did it with the wheel off my D2 sitting on my kitchen bar and just take your time & pull each knot as tight as possible. Then use a pair of needle nose to pull it tight after you've finished wrapping it. Final touch is placing it under hot running water to make it shrink even more. Then burn & tuck the ends and call it a day.

 

I just ordered paracord off of Amazon... I guess I have to give it a go since you made it sound so easy.

 

Yep it was not bad at all. I would recommend some finger-less gloves as I did get a blister on the lower half (first whirl at it) on the top half I had it all figured out and it went much faster.

For just the black paracord you can grab it at wally world for 4.00 per roll.

 

Did you do the axe knot on the back side of the wheel?

My '04 wheel has the solid leather wrap and doesn't look great on the sides or the top / bottom so I'm considering wrapping the entire thing. I've already wrapped my door handles so the wheel seems like the logical next step lol.

 

Yep the axe knot is on the backside to where it feels good on my hands.

The steering wheel above that I wrapped had the tan leather on the top and bottom and it was GROSS. Rest of the interior on my 99 D2 was in great shape, but the steering wheel was just nasty! I had purchased a nice used solid black one, so I had nothing to loose by messing with the old wheel. It came out so nice I removed the black leather wheel for the paracord wrapped one.

I used a really sharp knife and cut down between the tan/black leather, then cut the stitching on the tan part and completely pulled it off. Then when I wrapped it was countersunk in some to give it an OEM look. I then used a lighter and carefully burnt the ends of the thread from the black leather so it wouldn't unravel.

 

Show us those door handles!