and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

...waiting outside the dermatology clinic in Karlovac. Well, just 2 hours or so this morning after an early start. It's the same place I went to about 20 times so they could fail to remove the wart on my right index finger and leave me unable to do anything for the following week so I came prepared with a book. The object was for them to examine various lumps and moles on my wife, so worth doing for peace of mind. Thankfully they didn't find anything nasty. As most the morning had been used up we had a pizza out, then I dropped her off at work, came home and I was wondering what I could do this afternoon, seeing as how it's been raining pretty much for 2 weeks now I decided to fall asleep on the sofa. Well bugger it, it's my birthday so I'll do whatever the feck I like

Anyway, what I wanted to say was the steering wheel's started to break up on the yoyo, the shine seems to have worn off of it in a lot of places and at about 12 o'clock it's gone through to whatever it is underneath. I've owned and driven about 40 cars, most of them old clunkers, I've also driven various BT vans etc. in various states of neglect and disrepair but that's the first time Ive ever seen this. Looking it up on the parts catalogue there's two sorts, urethane and leather, I can see urethane ones on ebay, different to this as this one looks like stitched leather so I guess it's "leather" in inverted commas, rather than actually being leather. And a new one costs.... 1,700€ Preposterous. They do those slip on covers here but they look terrible, so I was looking for a tailored one to stitch onto it but nobody seems to do one, I guess because it's not the same diameter all round, with thicker bits above the spokes at 3 and 9 o'clock. So I guess I'll get one of these slip on covers (you never know, I may grow to like it) and leave a search going on ebay. It's sent me 35 to start off with, all of them are different to mine, which has 3 spokes and gaps either side of the air bag for the audio controls one side and a blank the other. I'd say bugger it and loose them but I don't know if there'll be any other differences.

Anyway, as you were

[steve_earwig]

...so I guess it's "leather" in inverted commas, rather than actually being leather.

No, scratch that, while I was waiting for t'wife just now I had a closer look and, judging by all the wrinkles around the spokes, it actually is leather. Very thin obviously. I suppose if I'd have realised that I might have been able to do something to stop it wearing through, ah well. Barn door, horse, bolted etc.

[OllieNZ]

If it's anything like the 'leather' gaiter for the gearstick on the avensis I had it'll be so thin you can see though it in good light. Fortunately a replacement Italian leather one was realitively inexpensive courtesy of eBay. The biggest issue was fitting it as the new one must have been nearly 3 mil thick.
Doesn't really help you though. Is there not a local upholsterer that can do it for you?

[steve_earwig]

Not that I've ever heard of, I can ask though.

[Doggy]

Never mind, Steve and a belated happy birthday.

(FWIW, nobody noticed mine a few weeks back).

[steve_earwig]

Hey, it's still my birthday, not belated at all. Sorry we missed yours, maybe there's a way of putting them where we can see them on here, rather than just the front page which nobody looks at.

I got 4 texts and an early start what more could I want?

I remembered I have a leather repair kit, it's a bit old and the filler seems to be like chewing gum, although I'm not sure if it's meant to be like that. I was thinking to maybe have a go at repairing it myself, I can't make it any worse, can I? Hmm, probably...

[GingerMagic]

Thread Hijack Alert..

Happy Birthday Steve..!!

Sorry Eric, you must have kept yours a bit quiet... Belated wishes

As you were.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE ! , hope you had a good day.
Just about got that in in time

sorry Dogslife missed yours , hope it was a good one

[Welly]

Happy Birthdays all-round you can add you B'day to your user Profile in the Control Panel if it tickles your fancy.

Steve you might be able to fit a Weering Steel from a Celica or some other Toyota chod wiv lesser mileage etc. Have you looked at the US sites? they like the Ravvy don't they? someone might have made a replacement stitch-a-thon kit for it?

[steve_earwig]

There's a reverse parts look up thingy on toyodiy which says the only car this wheel is fitted to is the RAV4 from 2001 - 2005, I'm not sure anything else is going to fit. I had a good look about yesterday, some of the US sites call a steering wheel cover a "wrap" , none of them list the yoyo

[Welly]

Oh that's a bit crap then. I think you should maybe add this repair to the 'list'...................and forget about it

[steve_earwig]

It's actually annoying because I can feel something wrong under my hand all the time, and it's getting worse because I can see the area all around the hole is getting frayed, so it'll only be a matter of weeks before I'm turning a big round frayed thing all the time

[Welly]

Yeah that would be annoying to be fair, I guess you could keep an eye out for a salvage wheel maybe? or find a re-trim kit and a craggy-faced tanner with his mahoosive needles.

[GingerMagic]

Get yourself some nice driving gloves, problem solved

[steve_earwig]

Bleurgh