OK - I just wanted to let you guys know my experiences - you could make your own decisions if you feel you want to use Chris to recover your steering wheel, or shifter boot.
I was one of the first to comment on Chris's job on recovering Gatorlance's steering wheel. When I first saw it, I felt it was too shiny. The detailed pics Lance provided proved that the material in fact had too much shine to it, but the work looked fantastic.
I figured if I provided Chris with a picture of my NOS wheel to go by, he should not have a problem getting the material to match. I was wrong. It came back with way too much shine, and no grain.
This is the wheel after Chris recovered it.
This is the steering wheel I sent to Chris.
It is an original 1982 Trans Am steering wheel. They had a fake leather covering. Before I sent the wheel to Chris, I told him that the foam material was loose in a few spots around the wheel. He told me he would be able to repair it with urethane adhesive. So I sent the wheel off to Chris.
I also emailed him these pics of my NOS wheel so he could match the sheen and texture of the original faux leather covering.
I told him I wanted to match as closely as possible the original texture and sheen of that wheel. I also told him not to make it too shiny, knowing that he made the TTA wheel too shiny.
He sent me this pic when he was done with it. It was hard to tell the details from this pic but I asked him how shiny it was. He told me about the way the original material was.
I had no idea that after all that he tried to match the shine of the wheel I sent him, even after I told him to match the picture I sent. I am not sure if he has a giant roll of shiny leather he is trying to get rid of, but he does not really try too hard to match the correct leather.
There was a few other issues I had with the work. You can see from this pic that the hand sewn seam goes off at this point and strays towards the front of the wheel.
When I asked him about it, his reply was that he followed the stitching that was on the wheel. I figured out why the original wheel is now crooked at this point, because it was not when I gave it to him. This is one of the spots where he repaired the wheel with urethane glue. Obviously he set it crooked as it was drying and it is now drifting to the front of the wheel. It is also not smooth anymore, and the underlying material feels lumpy.
There is also the matter of this machine stitch on the bottom of the wheel - which was sewn crooked. Not a big deal, but it is the small touches that make a great job.
The last thing I am not happy with is this area around the spokes. It does not follow the contour of the wheel and obviously needed an adhesive to bond it to the underlying material. I don't think there should be a gap between the leather and the original material.
I want to finish this by saying I never had intentions of posting about my negative experiences because I felt that when I contacted Chris and told him I was a little disappointed with the wheel, he would have offered to make it right. Instead, he immediately refunded my money, and then sent me an email saying he felt redoing the wheel was not an option. This is not good business in my opinion. I had hoped he would make it right and I could talk about the positive experience I had with Chris. But that was not to be. Not only am I not happy with the wheel, but due to the damage he did to the original foam, I don't think I can have it recovered again.
