the leather on my steering wheel was pretty worn out in my 98 4Runner, so i searched for a soultion to this. a few months back, Andy (bamachem) organized a group buy for replacement steering wheel covers through www.aglausa.com (btw, their site sucks. just e-mail them). this worked great b/c i wasn't interested in those slip on covers.

i found the group buy threads and PM'ed Andy about it and asked how to order. All I had to do was e-mail (or call) them asking for a replacement black leather cover for a 98 4Runner, 4 spoke design. I believe they have both 2 spoke (96-97) and 4 spoke (98-02) templates. This is a good quality cover, which involved cutting the old one off and sewing the new one on, unlike those lazy slip on covers.

Heres how to do it:

start by cutting off the the old cover. run an XACTO or other sharp blade down the seam.





peel the cover away from the spokes and slip off the steering wheel



naked steering wheel



the new cover and included needle and thread



slip on the new cover and align with the spokes



now for the sewing. they include 2-3 sets of directions, but they all say basically the same thing. after aligning the cover, run your hands around the wheel to shape it and fit the wheel better. you'll notice thread running along both edges (pre-sewn). start the thread somewhere, it really doesnt matter where. connect a loop from one side to a loop on the other and pull tight (the instructions explain better with pics). the instructions suggest to sew every other loop, except at spokes, sew every loop. this is GOOD advice, as the spokes will need to be pretty tight to fit well. here are some progress pics:



first section done:



first complete spoke:



about halfway:



almost done:



DONE:



it fits GREAT. very tight, looks good, smells good too

i may try to redo the upper right spoke, for some reason it did not get as tight as the other three, but it still turned out a lot better than i expected. the sewing is not too bad, just take your time. expect this to take 2+ hours to complete. or if your wife or girlfriend has been dying to help you with mods...

if you're interested in ordering, send an email to agla@gate.net <agla@gate.net> . ask for a replacement leather cover, tan or black, 2 or 4 spoke, and make sure to say pre-sewn. it'll come to about $68 shipped.

 

Looks great.. good write up!

 

Nice, how much did it run you? Did you have to watch lots of Martha Stewart to get that sewing technique down?!

 

he said 68 bucks shipped

looks good, dont think my sewing skills are quite up to par

 

what, you don't normally watch it?

$68 and some cents shipped.

 

Im sure it already comes with the holes stamped in it.. i would love one of those

 

wooow that looks very good.. wanna do mine ? lol

 

thanks guys

msw - yes, the holes are already in it. the difference between presewn and not presewn is the thread running through those holes. i can't imagine how long it would take to thread each side before putting the cover on. heres an attempt to explain it better:



what you're doing is connecting thread on each side to bring the sides together, you're not going through the leather at all. its really not hard, just time consuming. hope that helps

 

i have a warranty replacement cover on it's way to me. i have the tan leather interior w/ the brown wheel. my cover was dyed to match and the dye began to wear off withing about two months of having it on. these people are in south florida, and don't have the best communication skills and have also been bombarded with storms. after going back and forth for about 3 or 4 months, he finally shipped the warranty replacement to me today, so i should have it in a few days.

good quality leather, near perfect fit, nice stitching, better than OEM look. however, if this dye job doesn't last, then the only ones i could recommend are the black ones since the brown ones have to be dyed.

 

Man, couldn't be better timing...I was just about to go on the lookout for a good replacement cover or entire wheel.

May have to hit these people up, sewing still kind of scares me though.

Fink

 

andy - sorry to hear about the dye fading. communication with this company has been a hassle bc of the storms. hopefully this next one will work out bc this is a great replacement. i've just never been a fan of slip on covers.

fink - the sewing really isnt bad, but this needs to be something you have time set aside for as it will probably take longer than planned. for black steering wheels, if you feel 'up to' the sewing, this is really the way to go.

 

That's looks awesome! Great job on the stitching!

I did a similar thing on the LC this past summer. Maybe I should've done the same thing you did. I just got the slip cover, Wheelskin one. What do you expect for $37.

 

link sends me to american general life insurance....this can't be right.....right?

 

Garrett,
Great write-up. I need to do something about my wheel as well. Did the instructions have you spray adhesive on the rim first, or is the fit so precise that there is little chance of the cover eventually rotating?

Would it have been easier to work with the spoke sections if the airbag module were removed first?

Andreas

 

the correct link is: http://www.aglausa.com/ - Alan Gun Leather Accessories.

they're good people and do good work, but quality hand' cut and stitched stuff takes time. this guy does restoration stuff for lamborghini and ferrari enthusiests. he's good, but slow. he honors his warranty, but communication can be frustrating at time, and not necessarily their fault.

overall i've been very pleased with mine, even though the dye wore off prematurely. he's making good on it, and now that i've talked to him again, he sent one out a couple months ago but his secretary didn't update my address like he asked and she sent it to my old address via UPS, which doesn't forward packages.

anyway, he's making good on it.

definitely go for the "prestitched" version. when you do that, it's simply a matter of looping the "binding cord" thru the prestitched loops and tightening it up. it doesn't require any adhesieve, but it makes it easier if you have some superglue to attach the loose end of the binding cord to the wheel when you start.

alan already has the original wheel covers for a 96-97 and 99+ runners - they're different - the early ones are 2-spoke and the later ones are 4-spoke. i sent the OEM covers to him and he uses them to cut every new one - by hand.

 

link fixed, sorry about that.

it might be easier to do it with the center removed, the instructions even suggest taking the wheel off. i didn't know how to do it, nor did i really want to mess with it. doing it while the wheel is attached may require some weird angles, but its very possible.

 

nice!!!

 

Cool stuff, I'm gonna order today. Anyone have a tan interior with a black steering wheel? Does that look tacky?

 

would the 4 spoke one work on my 02 tacoma, its gray interior, but black leather would look fine i think as long as it would fit

 

he has all colors, but i think the taco wheel is slightly different. you would need to remove your old cover, send it to him, and wait about 6-10 weeks to get the new cover back.