Arts and Crafts

I acquired a new steering wheel for my collection the other week. But this post is not about that. I’ll have a post dedicated to that beauty soon. This post is about the wild idea I had when trying to figure out storage for my steering wheel collection.

See, I’d been using a shelf in the garage. The wheels were all protected in their original Momo and Nardi boxes, but they were still out in the garage. Not the best place for such beautiful objects. And definitely not where I wanted to store my new M2 steering wheel. It is such a piece of art.

And that’s when the idea hit me. Art. It deserves to hang on the wall.

Steering wheels as art.

Steering wheels as art.

My Prototipo mounted in a custom display case.

My Prototipo mounted in a custom display case.

I wandered the aisles of several craft stores with one of my unmounted Momos in my hand. I test fit it in shadow boxes until finding the right size, depth, and backing color. And price. I was very pleased to find these on uber-discount.

For wheel mounting hardware, I hit my local True Value Hardware. The one near my house has a nearly-magical selection of random bolts. And indeed they had just the bolts to fit my wheels and mount them to the boards. Two of my wheels have exposed screws and three have screws hidden under trim pieces. So I needed about 18 bolts total to take care of the four cases.

6 holes are drilled in the backing of each display case in the correct Momo pattern. The box with my Nardi wheel has both hole patterns drilled. The Nardi will always have to be returned to this same case, but the Momos can be swapped among all of the cases. Two bolts secure each steering wheel to the case with speed-nuts on the back side. The other four bolts are just poked through the backing to give a finished look.

I then cut out a 2″ hole in the padded backing with a hole saw. This gives room for the guts of the horn buttons to stick out the back of the frame. The horn buttons themselves are secured with standard Momo mounting rings that normally go between the hub and the wheel itself. It works great for my little display cases. The buttons stay in place, but are easy to remove when it’s time to swap wheels.

Finally, I replaced the crappy frame mounting hardware that came with the shadow boxes with some eye-hooks and wire rated to 50 lbs. God willing, they will stay secured on that wall.

My loft. Artwork by Momo and Nardi.

My loft. Artwork by Momo and Nardi.

They live in my loft. I went to a lot of effort to assure the wheels were easy to remove from their cases. I want them to look good on display, but more than that I want to USE them! Taking a case down from the wall and swapping the wheel in it for the one in my car takes very little effort. And that’s how it should be.

If anyone out there reading this has ever done anything similar, I’d love to hear from you! Google was of zero help for this project. I came up with this whole thing on my own. I hope it helps inspire some other wheel nuts.

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  • Dave says:

    Wow, those turned out great! How often do you swap out steering wheels?

    • revlimiter says:

      Thanks!

      Usually, I swap wheels a few times a year. Each one has a different feel and is suited to different things. The Nardi is all about cruising. The F1 is great for driving on the track.

  • Bryan says:

    I’d say you’re well past obsessed, Adam. Can’t say as I’m not impressed, though!

  • Randy says:

    Wow, inspiring to say the least!! This is my dream LOL look at all the car stuff!! I’m Jealous!!!

  • Sarah says:

    I’ll remind you who said suggested hanging them in the loft. *cough*

    • revlimiter says:

      Yes. This should have been included.

      I WAS GOING TO HIDE THEM IN MY OFFICE!!!!! But my darling wife insisted they go in the loft where she could also see them.

      My wife rules.

  • Sarah says:

    But truly, it looks beeeeeeyoootiful. Well done.

  • Bill says:

    That’s a brilliant idea! To non-car people I’m sure it could raise some eyebrows and questions, but I think it’s outstanding. I would love to do something like this if I had spare car parts that were suitable for framing and hanging on the wall. A rear valence and tail lights would look awkward, methinks.

  • ric says:

    Love this.

  • Mike says:

    Brilliant! I recently acquired three older steering wheels, two from old Fords, one from an old Fiat 124. I’ve been looking to mount them as art, but haven’t found a suitable way to do it. This is perfect! Thanks for the inspiration!

  • Scrappy Jack says:

    Adam –

    If you get a chance, can you measure the depth of the hinged display cases? My wife picked me up a couple that look almost exactly like what you have but they seem to be too shallow to hold a steering wheel. Overall depth of the ones she got me is a little less than 1.5″ but the glass being offset and the back padding material makes the useable interior depth something less than that.

    • revlimiter says:

      My cases measure 17″ x 21″ on the outside edge and have 2″ of depth inside. There’s 1.75″ in the base part and the lid part has an extra .25″ of depth between the frame and the glass.

      I might have looked a little funny walking around Hobby Lobby with a steering wheel, but I got cases that fit out of the deal. 🙂

      • Scrappy Jack says:

        Thanks! I will see if I can get my wife to lug around my Mazdaspeed 360mm in one of her big purses. 😉

      • Scrappy Jack says:

        So we lugged my Mazdaspeed 360mm wheel to Hobby Lobby and found the deeper shadow boxes. We walked past them at first because they didn’t appear to be hinged on the front side.

        The company on the label is the “Green Tree Gallery” sized 16″ x 20″ and item number is listed as 175893.

        Unfortunately, they were _not_ on uber-discount. 😐

  • jacob says:

    sweet shadow box idea. I have a collection of roughly 15 Momo’s, Nardi’s, Personal’s, and Italvolanti steering wheels and need to hang some to show people my addiction to steering wheels isn’t so bad!

  • Myke says:

    Hi! I’d like to display my steering wheel as well. Where did you purchase the display case from?

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