The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

bout three years ago I started looking for a 15- inch, 3-hole per-spoke steering wheel for the restoration of my car, 5S243. The 3- hole wheel was original on my car. At the recommendation of several friends and potential experts, I contacted a well-recognized supplier of wood- rimed steering wheels in the UK, where an elderly gentlemen declared that he “ thought they had made them back then .” I was excited to find what I thought was the original source of these wheels, and I immediately bought two of them, one for a friend who just wanted a cool wheel and one for my car. I had every intention of using my wheel when, through a dis- cussion with Howard Pardee and sub- sequently several other ‘65 Shelby owners, I discovered the wheel I had purchased didn’t look at all like the originals I had seen. So I started to re- search who made the original wheels. After contacting people who special- ize in the restoration of original wheels, I discovered that the original ‘65 Shelby 3-hole per-spoke wheels had the wood laid up in hoop strips cir- cumferentially around the rim, such that the driver saw the laminations. This is apparently a lost art form in the steering wheel business but the re- sult is a much stronger wood rim. The reproduction wheels I had recently purchased had the laminations run- ning like plywood from front to back. Obviously, that would not do. I also discovered that the original wheels had thinner aluminum frames. The reproduction wheels I bought had 5mm-thick aluminum whereas the original wheels were closer to 4mm. This is something easily detected by the eye. In discussion with the com- pany that supplied the two wheels, they said they only make 5mm-thick aluminum wheels these days for safety reasons, because the original wheels bent when muscled aggres- sively in racing. They would not make a thinner wheel for me. I was quite angry with the whole thing because they sold me the wheels based on what they said they “made back in the day.” I reconnected with the steering wheel restoration people trying to find someone who would make a correct wheel for me. In discus- sions about steering wheel history, the names “Derrington” and “Springall” came up. I then discovered that Springall was still around in the UK, now owned by Jacob Engineering under Mark Davies. I contacted Mark around October, 2020 to see if he could help. The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 109 – Gary Bartman A Original Springall manufacturing process back in the day.