GR86 Steering Wheel Retrims - Potential Deal

S18RSG

S18RSG

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Dec 6, 2021
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Hi all,

Due to my unhealthy obsession with alcantara (immediately obvious after a 5 second peek into my interior), I've been trying to find a solution for a good quality alcantara retrim for my wheel.

The obvious choice (other than a potentially questionable DIY job), is Royal Steering Wheels. They're a company I've used in the past with great success.

I contacted them to take advantage of their "Exchange" service. They will use a spare wheel for your car, retrim it in your design, then you either fit it yourself and send your stock wheel back, or you can go to them and they'll swap them over for you.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of demand from the GR86 (or facelift GT86 which shares the same wheel), they've not bought a wheel for their stock holding, so their only option currently is a retrim service, where they need your wheel for up to 2 weeks.

After some conversation, they are willing to buy a wheel into stock, which would be great for me and potentially any future customers. They'd be willing to do this based on receiving 5 interested customers, in a form of "group buy" type scenario.

So, the question is, is anyone else interested in this?

For reference, they will retrim your wheel in loads of different ways. Leather, alcantara, a mix of the two, loads of colours, stitching options and top centre stripe options, they'll even add thickness to the wheel, or add material around the 10/2 or 9/3 spots for better ergonomics I believe.

For an idea on cost, I was looking for a black alcantara wheel with yellow stitching and a yellow stripe at the top centre, and that was quoted at £190.

If anyone is interested, please let me know. I'll get in touch with them and see what we can work out in terms of fulfillment.

Thanks!

Royal Steering Wheels | Exclusive look, unique feeling

royalsteeringwheels.com
 
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I'm not interested in retrimming to something different right now. But in several years time it would be nice to have retrimming options available because I'm not sure if the OEM finish will last. Pretty sure I've already seen a few US owners talking about the leather cracking. So I hope you get some others interested and encourage RSW to buy in a stock wheel, if just for future support.
 
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Great stuff Ross, I think I'm in the same boat as the others, it's something I would do if the OEM finish gets wore or damaged. I would definitely want a nice red 12 o'clock band on mine. I've only ever heard positive reviews on Royal Steering wheels, their work does look nice, very much an OEM quality finish, some of the Yaris lads have had theirs done.

S18RSG said:
Due to my unhealthy obsession with alcantara (immediately obvious after a 5 second peek into my interior)
Click to expand...

Have you got any photos of what you've done?
 
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ZN8 said:
Have you got any photos of what you've done?
Click to expand...
I haven't yet mate, mainly because it's all coming back out tomorrow so I can fit the new speakers/amp and a load of sound deadening, and my gear gaitor and handbrake boot haven't yet been fitted either.

But for reference, I've done the dash vents, A pillars, some elements of the centre console, gear knob and obviously the rear seat delete which is entirely alcantara (pictured below), so there's quite a bit going on already.

Plans are:
Steering wheel, gear gaitor, handbrake boot, all pillars, headliner, centre console, "parcel shelf", gear knob, door cards and buckets seats all to be done in alcantara with yellow stitching where stitching is required.

6A5F5C1E-7E39-4630-9078-7972234FB8FE.jpeg
 
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Possibly but not now. A friend got his GTi6 wheel done with Royal and went alcantara and it made a big difference. I treat and clean mine with gliptone regularly to keep it like new. Eventually it would be nice to have a wheel with an electric blue stripe at the top to match the car. What would you be using to keep the alcantara clean?
 
Hi, did you get any more uptake? I would be interested as I have emailed royal steering wheels previously and was told the same with 2 week exchange!
 
I used Royal for my MX5 wheel which they had plenty of on their exchange deal, but they never had one for a GT86 so my car was off the road for two weeks as they couldnt stick to their rather optimistic estimated 7 day turn around as they were "busy".
Whats the plan for your wheel S18RSG?
 
Reviving this thread as I am interested and I wonder if we can convince some of those that regularly track theirs (or are just Alcantara fetishists) to jump in too?

My current situation is that I'm going to have to wait until later in the year as I don't want the car off the road for 2 weeks in the peak of summer.
 
Have tyou spoken to Royal? If they get enough interest in a particular car they may buy one for their own stock for fast turn around purposes.
 
Yes, I got a reponse back earlier saying they can't do it on an exchange basis as they don't have any GR86 wheels in stock.

If we can drum up a few of us though then we can do what Ross mentioned in the OP.
 
Don't know if it's of interest, but there's another option I decided to go with, and that's Rexpeed.

I bought an entirely new wheel from them, already covered in Alcantara (with custom stitching options) and a slightly flat bottom. Cost me around £300 delivered, and got here in around 7 working days.

1718210097126.webp

1718210120921.webp
 
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Unfortunately that's looking to be around £450 to the door now ($415 for the wheel, $45 for shipping plus the import duty and VAT). That said, an eBay second hand wheel + sending it to Royal Steering Wheels would also be in the same ballpark.

I might just wait until I can stomach it being off the road for a couple of weeks TBH.
 
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