So guys, this is my first post here after a long time on the Pakwheels forum. I have been a silent observer for quite a long time and have did not consider myself to have done something interesting enough to post. But my journey of getting a carbon fiber steering wheel encouraged me to share it with the Pakwheels community.
So this is the damned picture that started it all., initially one of my friend's Farhan shared this picture in a group of friends that he was negotiating a deal on this steering. A few days later I saw the same steering on a page on facebook and brokered a deal with the seller after around a day of haggling.
After a lot of explaining to the seller, he sent me a photo of the final steering that was going to be dispatched by him to me. And this is what it looked like:
Now you can see that it isn't quite as clean as the one shown at first, but I thought the wood needs to hydrodipped anyway, and the stiching redone, at least the monogram seems to be in good shape. I specifically asked for these black buttons because I already had buttons in silver and did not need the temperature controls as they would have been dummy buttons in my car.
On arrival, it really was a disappointment, the wood had dents in it that could be felt, the stiching was torn off, the control of the left had a deep scratch and the worst part the monogram had faded chrome. and the seller forgot to send me the cruise stalk. (later received)
Anyhow, now I thought on that it should be made into what it was imagined by me anyway. I cleaned it up and removed the controls carefully from their housing to make the silver holders seperate and the airbag unit and gave it to Atif Bhai from Carbographics Rawalpindi to make the carbon fiber trim in place of the wood.
Now until Atif Bhai was done with it, I decided to do something about that horrific monogram, searching the online forums I found out that you could get a replacement monogram easily but replacing the actual thing was a whole job in itself, anyhow I found the monogram online from a Gentleman named Sohail Chaudry who has a auto accesories store in Jhang and sent me the monogram for the steering. The monogram is melted into the steering to avoid flying off in the event of a airbag opening so it is very difficult to remove, most people on the online forums suggested replacing the airbag unit which was very expensive. Anyhow, i carefully used the miniso screwdriver and microfiber to pry the emblem out, and finally was able to remove it, it has "teeth" that are sunk into the cover and glued quite permanently a small scissor was handy in cutting the goo to free the emblem.
After around 4 days, Atif bhai let me know that the steering was ready. He had cleaned out all of the "dandian" (chips) in the wood and had dipped into a beautiful black shade carbon fiber that I wanted.
Now was the day, I had to go and get it all fitted, first the leather would have to be restitched and the steering finally fitted. I had two tasks first was the leather stitching, next was the respray of the steering control covers. Atif bhai had refferred me to a person named Sardar Khan who was the guy for the leather stiching and he further told me about a painter who was nearby who would respray the controls. The thing that worried me the most was the airbag unit, steering controls and cruise control work ability. The airbag looked fine and un tampered and I was told that the car already has all the wiring just the stalk is to be added to this steering. Ma Sha Allah and Allhamdulliah everything went well and everything worked as it should.
Before
After
