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Old 02-06-2021, 08:19 AM   #1
Steve Plucker
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Default Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

How would you return old hard chunks of the red steering wheel soybean compound BACK into it's original liquid paste that was used before the moulding and hardening process took place to form the steering wheel?

Hmmmmmm.

Pluck

Last edited by Steve Plucker; 02-06-2021 at 08:25 AM.
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Old 02-06-2021, 09:21 AM   #2
Mike Peters
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

Steve: My sister is a retired chemist. She says someone who specializes in material science might help you. She also said to research articles written back in the day when Ford was developing this soybean process for making car parts. Good luck.
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Old 02-06-2021, 12:49 PM   #3
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/201...wn-on-the-farm

General interest article about Fords and veggies back in the 30's.
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Old 02-06-2021, 12:58 PM   #4
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

I am not a chemist but have used various plastics in my mechanical engineering work. There are basically two types of plastics: thermosetting and thermoforming. Thermosetting goes into a mold and gets heated to cause a chemical reaction. This is a one-way street and cannot be undone. Thermoforming can be melted over and over again and is the kind of plastic mostly used in injection molding machines. I believe that the red steering wheels are thermosetting, but to test that try melting a little bit. I think the red plastic is formed by polymerization of the soybean oil, where the individual molecules are linked together to form long chains. Other parts of the soybean are probably added to provide filler. That is about all I can provide.
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Old 02-06-2021, 04:52 PM   #5
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

Steve: Can't help with your question, BUT welcome back to this site. Jim...
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Old 02-06-2021, 08:06 PM   #6
Dale G.
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

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Steve,


Ask your question directly to Mark Maron. He gave a great seminar at the MARC Meet in Branson on steering wheel restoration.
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Old 02-07-2021, 02:10 AM   #7
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

I recall hearing that someone had ground the "plastic" off an antique steering wheel( I don't recall if it was an A). They mixed it with Methyl Ethyl Ketone as a solvent and was able to repair using original material from a donor. I'm not sure if this was a soy based wheel. This anecdote may be entirely not helpful-but it came to mind.
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Old 02-07-2021, 05:06 AM   #8
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

Harp,


I like this thinking. would prob require being resprayed as to match colors though.
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Old 02-07-2021, 08:58 AM   #9
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

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Harp,


I like this thinking. would prob require being resprayed as to match colors though.
you are absolutely correct. It’s pie in the sky!
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Old 02-07-2021, 10:49 AM   #10
rotorwrench
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

Henry Ford started his work into development of soy beans for automotive use around 1930. He built a lab for that purpose at Greenfield Village in 1931. The 1928 red steering wheels were likely a phenol-formaldehyde type plastic more closely related to Bakelite thermo-setting plastic. The soy fiber plastics that Ford used later for the 1941 soybean car were most likely made with phenol-formaldehyde mixed with soy fiber materials. The soy polyols that can be used for polyurethane and polyester production are more modern developments from the earlier plastics. Henry Ford got a lot of his ideas from George Washington Carver as early as 1934 when they started corresponding with each other. Several soy plastic products came out of that collaboration in later years.

Once Bakelite is formed & heated, there is no going back to its original state. A person may be able to recast one with a Bakelite type process but I don't know of anyone who does this. An old red 1928 model A wheel could be repaired just like a hard rubber wheel and painted to look original with the right color mix or it could be recast with modern resins and tempered the way most steering wheel restorations are done in this day and age.

Last edited by rotorwrench; 02-07-2021 at 10:56 AM.
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Old 02-07-2021, 12:28 PM   #11
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

When I was a child, in school, probably around 1950, they taught us that plastics were made from trees. Nowadays they're mostly made from petroleum.
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Old 02-07-2021, 06:43 PM   #12
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

Steve, do you have the pieces?
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Old 02-07-2021, 08:16 PM   #13
Steve Plucker
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Default Re: Any chemists out there?...Red steering wheel restoation

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Steve, do you have the pieces?
Gene, Yes, I have a bunch...thanks.

Will start taking a file and file the peices into powder.

Pluck
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