I pulled a leather steering wheel from a Carat bus in a wrecking yard yesterday. Did VW ever offer a leather wheel? The part number on the wheel is 255 419 650C The horn button has a part number 255 419 669 D. Both have a stamped manufacture date of 9/88. It looks like the stock US style steering wheel from that era in black as far as diameter and shape except that the wheel itself, the part you grip, is wrapped in leather in the way a leather wheel from a manufacturer would be. That is to say the grip is wrapped with a perfectly conforming molded leather and a seem on the interior side of the wheel and a kind of complicated X shaped stitch holding it in place. The stitch is the same as on other VW leather wheels I have seen. The wrap conforms to all the finger grip nubs on the wheel on the inside of the wheel. It's not simply a wrap like a wheelskin brand because it actually continues over and covers part of the center steering wheel spoke or beam with the leather covering the spoke until it meets the horn button. The spoke has a recessed portion to accomodate the leather and allow it to fit flush on the spoke once the leather was installed. The horn button is covered with black naugahide giving it a slight padding. The naugahyde has two plugs with the picture of a horn at each side to denote it is the horn and the VW in the circle in the middle is a plastic plug the same size as on stock wheels. And again it looks to be a factory type leather wrap as the stitching and the fact that the leather molds over the spoke on each side makes it much more than a standard after-market wrap. The wheel is stamped with GERMANY as the manufacturing plant. This wheel is different than the South African leather wheels I have, although the SA wheel I have is from the late 90s. And although the late 90s SA wheel is a differnt shape than the 88 wheel I found the leather wrapping does share similarities. And the black leather SA wheel I have has a part number with the suffix C. The number of the SA wheel is 22S 419 091 C. Anybody have any info on such a wheel? Best Jeff 83.5 Westy LA,CA |
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